Skopje, 20 January 2023 (MIA) – Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, accompanied by Minister of Culture Bisera Kostadinovska Stojchevska, visited the St George Church in Kurbinovo as part of the visit to the Prespa region. PM Kovachevski was presented with the current construction activities for the preservation of the church, a unique example of Byzantine art from the XIIth century.

This church is known of the oldest preserved wall painting, a unique example of Byzantine art from 1191 AD, especially for the original frescos including the fresco of Archangel Gabriel from Kurbinovo, as part of the Annunciation composition, printed on the MKD 50 banknote. From 2013 onward, several projects for the protection and conservation of the St George Church in Kurbinovo have been realized, including conservation research, analyses, reconstruction and church conservation activities that amount to EUR 360,000.

The protection of the cultural heritage remains a priority of the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia and the Ministry of Culture. For that purpose, the Government is continuously investing in the protection of cultural goods, including the St George Church in Kurbinovo, which is already on UNESCO’s tentative list (the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO, Fuzhou, China, July 2021), the first step in the process of adding an item to the UNESCO List of World Heritage. The creation of the dossier for the addition to this list was done by the Institute for Protection of Monuments of Culture and Museum – Bitola, conducted in accordance with the UNESCO Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention.

Prior to this, in the latter half of 2019, the Basic Project for the Architecture and Static of the St George Church in Kurbinovo was created, and it was realized in 2021 due to the global healthcare crisis. Most of the conservation works were done by the end of 2022. The construction of the northside support wall and appropriate drainage channels, and the conservation of wall painting in the church’s interior and exterior remain for 2023. The full realization of all segments of the St George Church in Kurbinovo includes the construction of canopies to protect the façade’s wall painting. dk/ik/