Heavy rain damages frescos at Georgia’s historic Gelati Monastery
Tweet 
Share
Ancient frescos at the 12th Century Gelati Monastery have been damaged by several days of heavy rain.
It's understood rainwater leaked through the roof of the Monastery complex and damaged a portion of historic wall paintings.
Restorers currently working at the Monastery in Georgia's west said the frescos had not been completely destroyed but they had lost their original appearance.
Wall paintings of Gelati Monastery. Photo by Roberto Cantoni.
Gelati Monastery, founded by King David IV 'The Builder' in 1106, is one of the most important cultural landmarks of Georgia and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Danger.
UNESCO described the Monastery, whose main buildings were erected between the 12th and 17th Centuries, as "a well-preserved complex, with wonderful mosaics and wall paintings, representing the flowering of medieval architecture in Georgia.”
Since 2013, the United States Embassy to Georgia has allocated funds for the architectural rehabilitation of the church. Part of the money was allocated to conserving the church's mosaics. The project contained several phases and the full rehabilitation was expected to end in 2017.
The United States Embassy to Georgia will allocate $50,000 USD (87,500 GEL) for architectural rehabilitation of the Church of the Virgin at Gelati Monastery in western Georgia.
Seven years after it was added to the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger, the prominent 12th century Gelati Monastery in Georgia's west is back in the World Heritage List following joint work between Georgian and international cultural heritage experts.
The Gelati Monastery, one of Georgia’s major cultural heritage sites, is undergoing efforts to place it among monuments enjoying tourist infrastructure and support of highest quality.
Only 16 percent of roof tiling of the Gelati UNESCO World Heritage Site has been damaged by adverse weather as repair works are ongoing at the site, Nikoloz Antidze, General Director of the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia, said in comments to media on Friday.
The National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation is working to launch prompt rehabilitation works on a section of the gate around the Gelati Monastery Complex, after its partial collapse this week.
Experts are working at western Georgia's Gelati Monastery Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to study rainwater leak and fresco damage reported from the monument this week.
The organisation involved in rehabilitation works on western Georgia's Gelati Monastery Complex has said damage to roof tiling of the monument, which led to rainwater leakage reported last week, was "impossible to predict", with planning for fixing the damage still ongoing.