Decision 44 COM 7B.47

Gelati Monastery (Georgia) (C 710bis)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/21/44.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decisions 41 COM 7A.20 and 41 COM 8B.31, adopted at its 41st session (Krakow, 2017),
3. Notes the unfortunate failure of the new roof of the Church of the Virgin and the continuing degradation through moisture ingress in St George’s Church which is leading to decay of stonework, mosaics and wall paintings;
4. Welcomes the State Party’s action to install a temporary roof over the Church of the Virgin, and its monitoring and reporting of the damage to the stonework, wall-paintings and mosaics in the churches of the property, and requests the State Party to urgently:
   1. Provide a more workable solution to covering over both the Church of the Virgin and St George’s Church in a manner that allows for conservation activities to take place uninterruptedly without risk of moisture ingress, and submit this to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies before implementation,
   2. Develop a costed conservation programme for the property, including monitoring, research and implementation of conservation work to wall-paintings, mosaics and stonework of the two churches, and submit this to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies;
5. Also requests the State Party to:
   1. Continue its efforts to develop monitoring indicators for monitoring the state of conservation of the attributes that convey the Outstanding Universal Value of the property,
   2. Extend the tri-dimensional structural monitoring to St George’s Church and other important structures at the property as well,
   3. Provide a report on the activities of the World Heritage Protection Council of Georgia in relation to the Committee’s request for a coordinating committee for this property in its next report on the state of conservation of this property;
6. Further requests the State Party to review and update the Management Plan for the property and submit this to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies, and establish a Management Committee for its implementation, additionally, reiterates its request to the State Party to consider putting in place a mechanism that will allow the Management Plan, or part of it, to have status in planning processes;
7. Callsfor an increased mobilization of the international community to provide more financial and technical support to the State Party, including through a request to the World Heritage Fund “Conservation & Management” International Assistance, to implement the short- and medium-term measures to improve the state of conservation of the property;
8. Finally requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2022, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 45th session.