Conservation of icons of four churches of the Archdiocese of Constantinople (2023 – 2024)

Following the letter of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to the Minister of Culture, Mrs. Lina Mendoni, which was transmitted to the EKBMM in January 2023, the EKBMM undertook the conservation of 35 icons from churches of the Archdiocese of Constantinople. The project in Constantinople started in August 2023 and includes the conservation icons from Agios Dimitrios and Agios Ioannis Xerocrini in Besiktas, Agios Charalambos of Vevekion and Panagia of Palaio Mpanio.

The conservation of the icons was a very demanding work as their preservation status could not be described as particularly good. Most of the icons were having large dimensions and were embedded in built shrines in contact with the walls of the churches and had many newer paintings and underlying layers of paintings. As a result of the above, extensive consolidation work was carried out. Despite these difficulties, however, the final result of the work is very impressive.

The work of conservation the icons was completed in two phases. The conservation of the icons from the churches of Agios Ioannis Xirokrini in Besiktas, Agios Charalambos of Vevekiou and Panagia of Palaio Mpanio was completed in December 2023 and the conservation of those from the church of Agios Dimitrios was completed in August 2024.