25 August 2010

U.S. Aiding Preservation of European Cultural Patrimony

Projects in 12 European nations will benefit from special fund

By Domenick DiPasquale
Staff Writer

Washington — From fourth-century wall paintings in Macedonia to a 14th-century fortress in Moldova, landmarks in a dozen European nations in the Balkans, the Caucasus and elsewhere are the latest cultural heritage sites to receive much-needed support from a U.S. government fund that is helping to protect the world’s historical and cultural patrimony.

Over the past 10 years, the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, established by the U.S. Congress and administered by the U.S. State Department, has supported 640 cultural preservation projects in more than 100 countries. The State Department announced in June the 63 projects worldwide that were chosen for funding this year.

The 2010 grants reflect the diversity of projects to protect and restore cultural heritage that the Ambassadors Fund supports. The European projects that were selected this year encompass the continent’s rich patrimony, ranging from restoration of stone churches and medieval castles to textile conservation, documentation of folk dances, and archaeological work.

In Georgia, for example, the Ambassadors Fund will support work at a fourth-century B.C. archaeological site near the town of Mtskheta, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The archaeological remains include royal tombs, Greco-Aramaic tombstones and a third-century B.C. temple, all vulnerable to natural deterioration. The grant will finance a site survey, clearing of vegetation, stabilization of structural remains and the installation of interpretative panels and visitor paths.

Another ancient treasure that will benefit from the Ambassadors Fund is the late Bronze Age tumulus, or burial mound, of Kamenica in southeastern Albania. The site, which contains more than 400 graves from the 15th to the sixth century B.C., is suffering from an accelerating rate of deterioration. Funding will allow creation of an overall conservation plan, done in coordination with the University of Tirana’s graduate program in heritage conservation.

Ols Lafe, the director for cultural heritage at the Albanian Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports, explained why the help from the Ambassadors Fund is so valuable. Kamenica represents a long period of cultural and social development in Albania during the Bronze Age and Iron Age, Lafe said.

“The site represents the only monument of its kind which will be conserved and preserved in Albania,” Lafe told America.gov. “This project will also serve in the longer term by training Albanian archaeologists on excavation and preservation techniques.”

The remains of fortresses in Kosovo and Moldova will receive funding. An Ambassadors Fund grant will help document the Moldovan ruins at Orheiul Vechi, a landscape and architectural site that was formed by millennia of human interaction with nature and whose structures include not only fortresses but also religious buildings and settlements. Likewise, funding will be available for a comprehensive site survey and conservation assessment of the castle remains in the center of the Kosovo city of Vushtrri, once a major trading center.

Textile preservation will be the focus of two projects. Repairs to the roof, ceiling, and interior walls of the Ethnographic Museum of Serbia will protect its collection of kilims, or Balkan tapestry rugs, traditional ethnic attire and other handmade textiles. In Ukraine, a grant from the Ambassadors Fund will support restoration of curtains, upholstery and tablecloths in the dacha in Yalta that once belonged to famed Russian writer Anton Chekhov and that now is a museum honoring his life and work. The grant comes on the 150th anniversary of the author’s birth.

Not all projects involve tangible structures or artifacts. In Armenia, for example, funding will support the documentation of 20 Armenian folk dances and their associated music and traditions. The project will include production of an instructional dance DVD to be broadcast on Armenian television.

While the vast majority of grants made through the Ambassadors Fund are for less than $100,000, four projects worldwide received large-scale funding of several hundred thousand dollars apiece.

One was a $625,000 grant to the World Monuments Fund for the conservation of the remains of the 11th-century Surp Prikitch (Church of the Holy Redeemer) in eastern Turkey at the medieval Armenian site of Ani, once a thriving city along the legendary Silk Road linking Europe with China. The church, which already had suffered damage in a 12th-century earthquake and subsequent abandonment in the mid-1700s, sustained even more damage in the mid-20th century when a lightning strike caused its partial collapse. The resources provided by the Ambassadors Fund will finance emergency stabilization of the structure to ensure its long-term preservation.

The importance of cultural preservation projects was highlighted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who in a video message earlier this year said the Ambassadors Fund “demonstrated America’s respect for the world’s cultural heritage.”

“Cultural heritage serves as a reminder of the historical experiences and achievements of humanity,” Clinton said. “The more we know about each other and about our world’s diversity of cultures and traditions, the more we can learn from each other to help build a better future for all.”

A State Department video looking at some of the projects supported by the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation in 2010 is available at YouTube.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)