The Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage and the United Nations Development Programme- Partnership for the Future have launched a tender for conservation works at Agios Panteleimonas Monastery in the Turkish occupied village of Myrtou.
The Monastery of Agios Panteleimonas is one of four “Mega-Projects” that together with Apostolos Andreas Monastery, the Othello Tower, and the Famagusta Walls Complex are considered large-scale monuments with great historical and social value by the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage.
According to a UNDP-PFF press release, conservation works to the Monastery of Agios Panteleimonas are fully funded by the European Union within the overall 6.7 million Euro Cultural Heritage Programme that the European Commission is implementing through UNDP-PFF in Cyprus. Thirty-three cultural heritage sites island-wide are currently being safeguarded by the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage through this programme.
Takis Hadjidemitriou and Ali Tuncay, speaking on behalf of the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage, said that due to the “large size of this important monument, this tender will cover only the first phase of the necessary restoration works”.
Based on the surveys and investigations carried out in 2014, they have agreed to focus this first phase on the conservation of the Church and to carry out emergency stabilization works to the most endangered monastic buildings. If funds allow, more will be done during a future second phase, they said, adding, “we hope that these works will mark a new beginning in the long-life of Agios Panteleimonas”.
The overall aim of this first phase of the project is to ensure preservation of some parts of the monastic complex, visitors’ safety and accessibility to persons with disabilities.
Tender documents are published on UNDP website www.cy.undp.org. UNDP will accept offers through February 13, 2015.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and occupied the island`s northern third.