Public Defender recommends restoring Ossetian Material Cultural Heritage

The Public Defender of Georgia believes the Ossetian Material Cultural Heritage should undergo an upgrade.

He voiced his recommendation to the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection and advised them to give life to the site.

"Restoration of Ossetian House would be a step forward for the fulfillment of obligations taken by the State before the national minorities,” Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili said in a statement today.

Nanuashvili submitted a recommendation to the Ministry of Culture to provide financial support that would enable the restoration of Ossetian House in the Giorgi Chitaia Open Air Museum of Ethnography. He also recommended opening permanent exhibition there.

The open-air museum is located on a hill overlooking the Vake district of Tbilisi. The 52 hectare site houses around 70 buildings that enable to "visit” almost all the regions of Georgia in several hours and learn about the architecture and traditions of different regions.

Nanuashvili believed this would raise the awareness of Ossetian culture in Georgia and contribute to it gaining popularity in Georgia and abroad. He also believed this would help protect the cultural heritage of the Ossetian community and could help restore confidence between societies divided by past conflicts.

The Ossetian House, which belonged to the Kostaev brothers, dated back to the second half of the 19th Century and is an original model brought from Sokhta village, of the Djava region in 1975. In 1990, severe environmental conditions damaged the property.