Georgian Patriarchate to lead conservation works in Gelati Monastery with financial support from Culture Ministry
The “high-standard” scaffolding, purchased by the Ministry for ₾900,000 (about $341,616) will be provided “free of charge” to the Patriarchate, Tsulukiani noted. She added the sides had agreed to create a platform of discussion on the Gelati complex, which would be led by the Patriarchate and would include art experts and professionals. Photo via Culture Ministry
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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.
The decision was made at a meeting held in the Georgian National Museum, which was attended by the representatives of the Patriarchate, the Culture Minister Thea Tsulukiani, architect-restorers, art experts, and the chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Culture Eliso Bolkvadze.
Tsulukiani said the representatives of the Patriarchate shared her initiative and the Patriarchate would lead the process of conservation, restoration and interventions of the complex, instead of the Ministry. She also pointed out the problems on which the Ministry had “actively” worked since her appointment as Minister of Culture and noted the Patriarchate would continue to “solve these problems”.
The “high-standard” scaffolding, purchased by the Ministry for ₾900,000 (about $341,616) will be provided “free of charge” to the Patriarchate, Tsulukiani noted. She added the sides had agreed to create a platform of discussion on the Gelati complex, which would be led by the Patriarchate and would include art experts and professionals.
Gelati was returned to the UNESCO List of World Heritage in 2017, after the monument had been entered in the organisation's List of World Heritage in Danger in 2010, following restoration works under the previous Government of Georgia that were initiated in defiance of UNESCO regulations and warnings on "irreversible interventions carried out on the site".
The 12th-century Monastery, located 11km north-east of the western hub city of Kutaisi, was originally inscribed in the World Heritage List in 1994, with UNESCO describing it as a "masterpiece of the Golden Age of mediaeval Georgia".
The initial construction of the main buildings of the complex was carried out in 1106, during the reign of King David IV of Georgia. Further additions were made to the monastery between the 12th-17th centuries.
A report involving experts from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property has lamented the absence of a general project for conservation works on the Gelati World Heritage Site in Georgia's west, and urged authorities to ensure more communication with local stakeholders over ongoing issues at the monument.
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”.
Professionals from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre will visit Georgia to issue recommendations on the ongoing rehabilitation of the Gelati Monastery Complex, following a fraught work on the site that resulted in damage to its newly installed roof and rainwater leaks last year.
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.
Gelati Monastery is a material monument of universal spiritual ideas, where science and faith are combined uniquely, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on Saturday at the presentation of the rehabilitation programme for the Monastery in western Georgia, recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Tuesday announced a new comprehensive plan would be developed for the ongoing conservation works in western Georgia’s Gelati Monastery complex, which would ensure the research-based restoration process.
The rehabilitation works, supported by France, on the Tsiskarauli Family Tower in the village of Akhieli in Georgia’s mountainous Khevsureti region, concluded in September, the French Embassy in Georgia said on Friday.