World Cultural Monument Heritage Status Returned to Gelati Monastery

The decision to return the 12th Century Gelati Monastery back to the world’s heritage list with independent status was taken at UNESCO World Heritage meeting in Krakow, Poland on Monday. 

Following the information announced by the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, they in cooperation with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the World Heritage Center, together with international experts, prepared the necessary documentation. As the Ministry of Culture of Georgia states, the conservation and rehabilitation process carried out at the Gelati Monastery complex fully complies with World Heritage Convention principles. 

Gelati Monastery and Bagrati Cathedral were first put on the World Cultural Heritage list in 1994. In 2010, due to the reconstructions of Bagrati Cathedral, both Gelati Monastery and Bagrati Cathedral were listed as endangered world cultural heritage monuments. Bagrati Cathedral and Gelati Monastery previously shared one nomination in the UNESCO list. 

With the decision made at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Krakow, Gelati Monastery is now back on the World Heritage list, following the placing of the ancient town of Mtskheta (Georgia’s ancient capital) on the same list last year, both now removed from the list of World Heritage in Danger. 

Mikhail Giorgadze, the Minister of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia, stated that Bagrati will have a chance to also be returned to the list in a different nomination, as together with experts from UNESCO and with the help of German and Polish partners, work to nominate the Kutaisi historical landscape-historical zone is underway, with the aim that Bagrati Cathedral can be once more preserved and represented in the context of World Cultural Heritage Monument.

Photo: Gelati Monastery 

Source: UNESCO wbesite

By Nino Gugunishvili