European experts in Georgia to safeguard David Gareji monument
Tweet 
Share
The David Gareji Monasteries and Hermitage, one of Georgia’s most revered sites of cultural heritage, is in focus of a delegation of European experts looking to safeguard the endangered monument.
A delegation from Europa Nostra, a continent-wide heritage organisation, and the European Investment Bank Institute arrived in Georgia this week to visit the monument.
They will study the site — named among Europe’s seven most endangered sites earlier this year — to prepare a report for its safeguarding.
The team includes Piet Jaspaert, Vice-President of Europa Nostra, Campbell Thomson, Technical and Economic Adviser contracted by the Investment Bank Institute and Gaianè Casnati, Conservator Architect and Council Member of Europa Nostra.
They are led in the mission by Maka Dvalishvili, Head of the Georgian Arts and Culture Centre, which nominated the site for the list of endangered sites. The centre is cooperating with the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia.
The European delegation of heritage and financial specialists will meet with local, national and transnational authorities and stakeholders [...] with the aim of mobilising efforts towards saving this masterpiece of Georgian culture”, Europa Nostra said.
David Gareji is a complex of 22 rock-hewn monasteries and more than 5,000 sanctuaries and cave-cells, located in Georgia’s south-east.
Dating back to the 6th century CE, it is noted by Europa Nostra for its "combination of rock architecture, medieval murals, prehistoric archaeology and paleontological fields”.
The principal threat of "irreversible deterioration” facing the complex is coming from the disintegration of the rock formations comprising it.
The experts involved in surveying the monument will present their report for safeguarding it in early 2019.
Some of the unique Medieval frescoes at the David Gareji complex, one of Georgia’s major cultural heritage sites, have been vandalised by tourists in the country’s south-east.
The David Gareji Monasteries and Hermitage, one of Georgia’s most cherished cultural heritage sites, has been included on a list of Europe’s seven most endangered monuments of this year, facilitating upcoming international efforts for its preservation.
Two historical monuments in Georgia, the Chiatura cable car system and David Gareji monastery complex, have been announced among endangered sites throughout Europe by Europe’s major cultural heritage organisation.
Georgia's unique David Gareji monastery cave complex has been selected by the National Geographic magazine among its "most wild and beautiful" places from across the world.
European experts have published a report for rehabilitating David Gareji, one of the principal monuments of cultural heritage in Georgia, after it was named among Europe’s seven most endangered sites last year.
Clerics of the mediaeval David Gareji monastery complex at the Georgia-Azerbaijan border area say that Azerbaijani border guards are not allowing them into the Udabno Monastery of the complex and are also preventing visitors and pilgrims from entering the oldest sections of the monastery complex.
Azerbaijani border guards have now allowed clerics and visitors to enter the medieval Georgian monastery David Gareji, Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani said. The president’s administration stated that it is important that the commission working on the demarcation of the Georgia-Azerbaijan border renew work on the issue.
The Georgian Patriarchate has stated that positive steps have also been taken during the “active negotiations” of Georgia and Azerbaijan regarding Georgia’s 6th century monastery complex David Gareji located at the conditional border between the two countries.