"Immediate rehabilitation" needed for collapsed Gelati UNESCO site gate
State rehabilitation work on the UNESCO site in Georgia's west has been ongoing for more than a decade. Photo via Georgian Arts & Culture Centre.
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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.
Local media reported on the collapse of the Western gate surrounding the UNESCO World Heritage Site on Tuesday, with the agency confirming the information.
The state cultural organisation cited "intensive degradation" of the stone material used in the gate as a risk factor for those visiting and living near the monument.
In a move reflecting the urgency the organisation has requested rehabilitation works bypassing the governmental tender process for selecting a company for the work.
Located in Georgia's west, the Gelati Monastery Complex has been in news this year after damage to its recently installed roof tiling during the last winter season led to rainwater leaks inside the St Mary Temple, its principal structure, in July.
Work is ongoing on fixing the roof defects at the site.
All the architectural segments of the Gelati Monastery Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Georgia's west, will be temporarily covered by the end of this year, says the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation.
Temporary roof structure over the Gelati Monastery Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Georgia's west, will be completed before December and allow replacement of the roof structure of the monument below it, the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation said on Monday.
The deteriorating facade of the iconic 6th century Jvari Monastery, which stands perched atop a hill outside the ancient Georgian capital of Mtskheta, will undergo conservation and reinforcement work supported by the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation at the United States Embassy in Tbilisi.
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.
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.
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.