Ambassador's Fund Helps Preserve Frescos of Piva Monastery
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Embassy of the United States of America
Podgorica
On October 3, U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro Roderick W. Moore will announce a $22,200 grant provided by the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation for the preservation of Piva Monastery's frescos. The Grant will fund reconstruction of the drainage system around the building in order to channel water away from the site. This will preserve the frescos by reducing the humidity that has been permeating the walls of the Monastery and damaging the frescos. Ambassador Moore, Secretary of the Monastery Mr. Marjan Vujovic, and Mr. Zdravko Gagovic from the State Bureau for Cultural Preservation in Cetinje will give brief remarks. The Mayor of Pluzine Mr. Mijusko Bajagic, Assistant Minister of Culture Predrag Malbasa, and other distinguished guests will attend the event.
The Piva Monastery project is one of 68 projects worldwide awarded this year through the Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation. The U.S. Congress established this program in 2001 to help preserve historic sites and manuscripts, museum collections, and traditional forms of music, dance, and language. Thus far it has funded over 400 projects totaling $11.3 million. In Montenegro, The Ambassador's Fund helped restore the lower ramparts of the Kotor fortress in 2003 and the shadrvan of the Hussein Pasha Mosque in Pljevlja in 2007.
The original site of the Piva Monastery was flooded with by the construction of a dam on the Piva River in 1979 to create a hydro electric power plant. The Monastery was taken apart piece by piece and relocated two kilometers above its original location. This remarkable reconstruction took 13 years, from 1969 to 1982. It involved removing over 1,200 square meters of the 16th century frescos and replacing them on reconstructed walls. It is one of the most valuable monastery complexes in Montenegro. The "Mother of God Ascendant" Church (Uspenje Bogorodice) was built between 1573 and 1586. Besides frescos the Monastery has Treasury that holds valuable collections of old manuscripts, printed books, icons, items of artistic crafts, and many more valuables.
Journalists interested in covering the event should be in front of the Piva Monastery no later than 10:40 on Friday, October 3.
For more details on this event, please contact Sasa Brajovic from the Embassy at +382 67 28 35 42
For more information on the U.S. Government’s programs in Montenegro, please visit the Embassy's web site at http://podgorica.usembassy.gov
Crnogorski