U.S. Embassy to Help Restore Wooden Church in Drohobych

On September 2, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt will present a grant from the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation to the organization Institute of Drohobych and the museum Drohobychyna for the restoration and preservation of authentic frescoes in the outstanding Ukrainian historical and artistic monument of the wooden Church of St. George.

Drohobych is the first city outside of Kyiv that Geoffrey R. Pyatt will officially visit upon his arrival in Ukraine as an ambassador. Ambassador Pyatt's participation in bestowing the grant for the restoration of a Ukrainian monument, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, highlights what he expressed in a video to Ukrainians about his interest in studying the history, culture, and traditions of Ukraine, ZIK informs with reference to the press service of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

The ceremony will be held with the participation of the Mayor of Drohobych Oleskiy Radziyevsky, the director of the Drohobychyna museum Alla Hladun, and the director of the Institute of Drohobych Mykhailo Luzhetsky.

We remind that the Church of Saint George in Drohobych was included in the list of World Heritage Sites in 2013 as one of the greatest masterpieces of wooden architecture of global significance from the late 15th to early 16th centuries. The interior of the church-museum has painted murals, compositions, and decorative motifs that retained their unique artistic value and reveal important historical events and the way of life of the inhabitants of medieval Galician cities. The work of the craftsmen, who in different years of rebuilding were provided a certain freedom in their creative imagination, gives the building a vivid and distinctive individuality.

The poor condition of the wooden structure and murals demands immediate restoration work. A winner of an international competition, this project received a grant from the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, which will provide an opportunity to save the historical and artistic uniqueness of the monument. In 2013 149 project-finalists from around the world competed for grants. The winners were 46 projects, 6 of them European, including Drohobych.

Since 2001, the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation has provided financial support to over 750 projects related to cultural sites in over 120 countries. The more than 40 million dollars, which collectively have been invested in these projects, demonstrates the respect of the United States for the cultural heritage of other countries.