UNESCO is unhappy with Georgian efforts to rebuild Bagrati Cathedral.
The ruins are “world heritage site”, and are supposed to stay that way.
The cathedral was sacked by the Mongols in 1265 and the Persians in 1615. It was rebuilt every time. Because it was needed as cathedral, not as a museum. There is something terribly wrong with conservation efforts that deny people the legacy in its original meaning. Apparently, for post-Christian Europe it is impossible to imagine that people choose a cathedral over the money which UNESCO is prepared to shovel for the right to keep this 6th century complex in ruins.
When does a civilization die? Maybe it happens when books become “antique” – not to be read but admired for their covers, when cathedrals become “museums”, when form prevails over the essence, when chain of ages gets disrupted.
