Culture minister: plans for preventive work on Gelati monument before fall weather
Over the recent months the culture ministry has hosted local professionals in meetings to share opinions about the next steps to be taken on the site. Photo via National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation.
Tweet 
Share
Plans are in motion to ensure initial preventive work on Gelati complex, a UNESCO World Heritage monument in Georgia's west, before the onset of precipitation during fall season, Georgia's culture minister Thea Tsulukiani said on Friday.
Tsulukiani announced the intention while speaking in the wake of the most recent developments around the monastery complex - the publication of a UNESCO World Heritage Committee document and reports by working groups studying the site and involving experts from the international body.
The minister said his administration was working to select the professionals to be tasked with carrying out the "initial work on reinforcing [fresco] painting [in the monastery]" before fall, while also devising a monitoring group to oversee work on the frescoes as well as roof construction at the site.
Reports from two groups that worked to study the latest condition of both the roof structure and fresco damage - caused by precipitation and revealed to the public last year - were made public by the ministry this week.
They followed a draft decision on Gelati, released following the 44th meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee last month, that lamented "fragile state of conservation" at the World Heritage Site and calling for urgent action of providing a "more workable solution" for temporary roofing to prevent moisture ingress into the St George's Church and the St Mary Church of the complex.
The reports illustrate the damage caused by prolonged rainwater leaks into the monument due to a botched rehabilitation process that used defective roof tiles to replace the previous roofing on the site over the last few years.
Tsulukiani said professionals in Georgia differed on necessary measures to safeguard Gelati but added the monument was "running out of time" and said the ministry would ensure timely work on the complex for making sure the damaging natural processes were stopped.
Earlier this year the minister said some damage caused to frescoes of Gelati by rainwater leaks would be "irreversible", and called the 2008-2020 rehabilitation work on the monument a "big mistake" and an "experiment" that has proved "damaging" to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has lamented the "fragile state of conservation" of the Gelati monument in Georgia's west, calling on the Georgian government to implement a solution for safeguarding the monastery from precipitation via a "workable solution" and requesting international assistance for implementing measures for improving its conservation state.
Frescoes of the interior of the Gelati monastery complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Georgia's west, are "in very bad condition", experts from the global body have said at the first press conference following the start of their work to study damage caused to the monument.
Some damage caused to frescoes at western Georgia's UNESCO World Heritage Site of Gelati by rainwater leaks will be irreversible, Thea Tsulukiani, the Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia, said on Friday, as she also revealed an ongoing investigation into the causes of the botched rehabilitation at the complex.
Thea Tsulukiani, the Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia, has called the 2008-2020 rehabilitation work on Gelati Monastery Complex in the country's west a "big mistake" and an "experiment" that has proved "damaging" to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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.
Orthodox Christians in Georgia are celebrating the Day of Virgin Mary, which is otherwise known as the Dormition of the Mother of God today. In Georgia, Mary is referred to as Mariami and the holiday is known as Mariamoba.
The Georgian Ministry of Culture on Tuesday responded to a report by the National Research Centre for Georgian Art History and Heritage Preservation that had pointed to the process of conservation at western Georgia’s Gelati complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, being “centralised” and “non-transparent” and the works being carried out through “extreme methodological violations”, by calling it “politically motivated”.
The Patriarchate of Georgia will lead the ongoing conservation works in western Georgia’s Gelati Monastery complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the financial support of the Culture Ministry, the Ministry announced on Friday.
Orthodox Christians in Georgia are on Monday celebrating Mariamoba, the Day of Virgin Mary. The holiday commemorates the dormition of the mother of Jesus Christ and, as believed, her bodily resurrection before being taken up into heaven.