The Municipal Development Fund of Georgia is Implementing ‘Batonistsikhe’ Castle Rehabilitation Works
The Municipal Development Fund of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia is implementing rehabilitation works for Batonistsikhe ‘Castle’. The First Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia, Ilia Darchiashvili together with the Executive Director of the Municipal Development Fund of Georgia, Juansher Burchuladze were visiting the project site. Concurrently with ‘Batonistsikhe’ rehabilitation, the MDF has already announced a bidding on ‘Batonistsikhe’ museum rehabilitation works. The Regional Development Project is backed by the World Bank and Government of Georgia and its cost amounts to GEL 1,573,000. The project is mainly aimed at preserving original appearance of the monument, besides the project is focused on development of cultural heritage circuits and tourism in Kakheti Region.
It is notable that for the last time Batonistsikhe castle was subjected to rehabilitation in the 80-ies of past century, but in certain cases, the materials used for reconstruction purposes were not the initially applied ones, moreover international restoration standards were not adhered to. For this reason, the Municipal Development Fund targeted its efforts at updating the existing design, in order to keep to current standards and prevent affecting original appearance of the monument.
The updated design includes preservation of authenticity of the roof crown, application of lime instead of putty for wall plastering, since the artefacts existing on the building prove that it was lime that was initially used for wall plastering during palace construction works. For adequate rehabilitation of ‘Batonistsikhe’ castle all of the named details should be taken into consideration.
For addressing the mistakes made and aforesaid problems and in order to develop a faultless design, all parties were involved in the process of the castle design elaboration by the Municipal Development Fund of Georgia. Apart from the above-mentioned ones, a number of other adjustments were made to the design, in particular: addition of the exhibition space to the building, landscaping works, and replacing concrete ornaments with ‘Kvevri’ type ornaments.
Complete rehabilitation of “Batonistsikhe” is ongoing according to the updated design. The rehabilitation project was prepared in coordination with the Cultural Heritage Agency.
We would like to remind you that the ‘Batonistiskhe’ castle was founded and it was functioning as king's quarters in one of the most complicated periods of country’s history – from 70-ies of XVII century till 1801.
