Inclusion of the site in the 1996 Watch generated considerable publicity for the monastery and its precarious state. WMF secured funding through the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1996 for emergency repairs to the buildings, which was heralded in Georgia as the first international funding for cultural heritage in the newly independent country. (...)
Inclusion of the site in the 1996 Watch generated considerable publicity for the monastery and its precarious state. WMF secured funding through the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1996 for emergency repairs to the buildings, which was heralded in Georgia as the first international funding for cultural heritage in the newly independent country. The Georgian Restoration Institute, nominators of the site to the Watch, oversaw a year-long project that included the reinforcement of foundations and the dome drum, removal of vegetation from masonry, repair of damaged stones, infill of cracks, and repair of the hand-hewn stone tile roof. A second award in 1998 supported the conservation of the bell-tower and planning for the protection and reconstruction of the historic environs, landscape, and rural resettlement of Pitareti, abandoned due to political upheaval in the 1990s. To this end, the Pitareti Revival Foundation was initiated in 1997 to bring together preservation professionals, local and state government, and private organizations as patrons of the complex and its surroundings, promoting its protection and maintenance.
