The state of wall paintings in temples is different. There are both historical and new damages. However, the state of the wall paintings in certain areas has especially deteriorated as a result of roof restoration intervention in the 2010s. In the 21st century, leakage of rainwater through roof tiling caused an irreversible process of damage to large sections of painting, along with complex forms of damage, important sections of painting were also lost. 

2019-2020 monitoring and physical interventions (reinforcement) on the wall paintings were carried out in certain sections of the churches. Special attention was paid to the western arm of the main space of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, where small research and large-scale restoration works were carried out in 2021-2022.  However, the interventions proved to be ineffective in some cases and even more damaging in others.

A mission was carried out by the UNESCO World Heritage Center, ICOMOS and ICCROM from November 28 to December 2 to assess the interventions. Experts recommended expanding research on Gelati painting, producing the missing documentation, developing and presenting a safe methodology for emergency interventions, and only after that conducting interventions.

Thus, the process of describing and documenting the state of murals began at the basic stage of the conservation study of the Gelati monastery complex wall paintings. Based on the scale of the wall paintings in the monastery complex, priority locations were determined and the work was divided into stages.

The location for the first stage (depending on the damage complexity and the scale of restoration interventions) was determined as:

➢ The upper register of the north, south and west arms of the main space of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (arch level, sails).

The specific tasks of the April 2023 mission were to use a non-invasive method of study:

• Determine the damage to the wall painting
• Visual dictionary and photo documentation of wall paintings
• Graphic diagrams of wall painting damage
• Summary of wall painting state.

See report for details:

Condition assessment and documentation of the wall paintings at the vault level of the North, South, and West arms of the main space of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary of Gelati monastery complex, April, 2023- see documentation