Italy will help restore Odessa’s Orthodox cathedral, badly damaged in a Russian attack, using its tradition of restoration and honoring cultural ties with Ukraine, Giorgia Meloni’s government announced Friday.
In a statement released this Friday by Palacio Chigi, the Italian government reveals that it has “involved two of the most authoritative Italian cultural institutions, the Milan Triennale (art and design museum) and Rome’s Maxxi (national art museum of the century) with the aim of bringing together the best economic, technical and cultural forces that can contribute to the restoration of the Transfiguration Cathedral”, located in the historic center of Odessa, in the south of Ukraine.
Rome’s executive justifies its intervention “in memory of a long and rich history of exchanges between Odessa and Italian culture, which led Italian architects to conceive the most representative plans and buildings of the city at the end of the 18th century” .
“The tradition of Italian restoration schools, conceived as university departments, professional institutes, workshops and laboratories, is now available for a project to restore and improve the walls and frescoes damaged by Russian bombs, restoring an ancient friendship between two peoples and an effective rebirth of the city,” the statement concludes.
On the night of July 23, bombings by Russian troops severely damaged the large Orthodox Transfiguration Cathedral.
The Kremlin (Russian Presidency) denied bombing the cathedral and assured that the destruction was caused by Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles, fired to intercept the Russian missiles that fell on the city.
Earlier this week, after a mission from the organization to the city, the director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) office in Ukraine, Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, said the cathedral had “experienced greater damage than initially “estimated”, after Kiev pointed out that the temple’s altar had been completely destroyed and the building’s supporting structure damaged.
The important Black Sea port city of Odessa, whose historic center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site earlier this year, has been the target of several attacks by Russia, with Russian forces targeting grain export terminals in particular, but also civilian infrastructure and monuments.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: DN
