Conservation work on the frescoes of the church of Agios Georgios in Kurbinovo, North Macedonia (2021-2024)

In June 2021, at the headquarters of the European Centre for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments in Thessaloniki, a Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia and EKBMM was signed by the Minister of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia, Ms Irina Stefoska, and the President of the administrative Board of EKBMM, Professor of Byzantine Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Ms Natalia Poulou.

The reason for the signing of the Memorandum was the invitation of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia to EKBMM for the undertaking of the conservation of the frescoes of the Byzantine church of Agios Georgias in Kurbinovo, which is one of the most important monuments as it preserves an entirely iconographic programme of the Komnenian period (1191). In this framework, cooperation in the sectors of protection, conservation and restoration of byzantine and post-byzantine monuments in the Republic of North Macedonia as well as in the training of the conservation staff and the implementation of scientific research programmes, publications and exhibitions was mutually agreed between the two parties. Following this memorandum, a new agreement was very soon signed between the EKBMM and the Institute for preservation of monuments of culture in Bitola for our Centre to undertake the conservation of the frescoes of the Byzantine church of Agios Georgios.

In April 2022, with the approval of the competent bodies of the Ministry of Culture of North Macedonia, a team of experts from EKBMM carried out on-site surveys in the church in order to prepare a study for the conservation of the frescoes that are preserved inside and outside the church. Specialized equipment of the state of the art technology, transferred from Greece and was used in the surveys. The work that took place included sampling of pigments, photoshootings with a multi-spectral camera, with UV radiation, colorimetry, macroscopic photoshootings with a stereomicroscope and photography with tangential illumination. The aim was to complete the best possible documentation of the original frescoes, to identify and verify possible epigraphy and all the interventions it has undergone over the centuries, to record its pathology, and finally, to propose interventions for its conservation. The study was successfully completed in July of the same year and was approved by the competent bodies of the Ministry of Culture of North Macedonia and the on-site works started immediately.

The first stage of the project included the stabilization of the edgings of the frescoes and was completed in the summer of 2023. During the second stage, in the autumn of 2024, the main cleaning of the frescoes was carried out, with the results of the work being impressive, as they revealed the vividness of the colours and expressions. During the last stage of the work, in the summer of 2024, to the point conservation and aesthetic restoration of the frescoes was carried out. Finally, a detailed in very high resolution photographic documentation of the monument was carried out, a copy of which was delivered to the project partners. All the work carried out on the monument followed exactly what is stated in the study carried out in July 2022 and aims to preserve the frescoes of the monument with full respect for their historical and aesthetic testimony and guided by the principle of minimum intervention.