CONSTRUCTION OF NEW TREASURY DEPOSITORY WILL BEGIN THIS YEAR WITH GOVERNMENT FUNDS ALLOCATED FOR HILANDAR

BELGRADE, MARCH 17 /SRNA/ - The Hilandar Monastery Endowment will allocate 138.5 million dinars /around 1.18 million Euros/ provided by the Government of Serbia primarily for the construction of a new underground depository for the Hilandar treasury, as a key project for the protection of its most valuable cultural heritage, the Endowment’s director Milivoj Ranđić told SRNA.

On the occasion of today’s signing of the agreement with the relevant minister, Ranđić said that these funds were allocated in accordance with the Law on the Preservation of the Cultural and Historical Heritage of the Holy Hilandar Monastery, which was adopted so that the largest and oldest treasury of Serbian, but also world cultural heritage, could be cared for in one place. He stated that these funds will be used to begin the first activities related to the construction of the new depository for the Hilandar treasury, after which work will continue on the monastery archive, the old library, old manuscripts and printed books, and the monastery charters. Ranđić said that these works will also include the monastery pinacotheca, that is, the museum of monastery icons, and the icon repository, adding that experts from Serbian institutions, including conservators and restorers, are involved in all of the work. He said that part of the work will also take place outside the monastery walls, where current economic activities, that is, everything that produces noise and disturbs this holy site, will be relocated. Ranđić said that the project does not concern only heritage such as icons, frescoes, and buildings, but also the spiritual heritage represented by the Athonite monastic community itself, as well as the cultural space that must be preserved. “Things like garages, warehouses, and maintenance workshops, all of that will be relocated. There is also the old monastery mill. An economic zone will be created near the monastery mill,” Ranđić added. He said that the restoration of the burned section of the monastery has been completed, and that as far as the treasury is concerned, the project will begin this year, first with work on the depository, and afterwards on the treasury itself, which is expected to take four to five years. “With projects like this, you can never really stop. This depository is a completely new facility, but it will be underground. There is nowhere outside to place it without disturbing the medieval appearance of the monastery, so we are going underground,” he said. Ranđić added that cultural artifacts, manuscripts, and the old library should be stored in an underground depository, as they can be better preserved there. “They are protected from external influences and from people as well, considering the kind of times we live in,” Ranđić said. He noted that the Hilandar Monastery Endowment continues to operate as a specialized institution for Hilandar Monastery, while engaging state experts and respecting the sovereignty of Greece, where the monastery is located. Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković and the director of the Hilandar Monastery Endowment, Milivoj Ranđić, today signed an agreement at the Ministry of Culture of Serbia in Belgrade under which the Law on the Budget of the Republic of Serbia allocated 138.5 million dinars for the restoration of the monastery in 2026, the largest regular budget allocation intended for Hilandar in the past 23 years.