PANJIM: The main altar and other wooden antiques in the 17th century St Anne's church at Telaulim (also referred to as Talaulim) were crumbling with age and mite infestation. Conservation measures have helped restore the cultural heritage reasonably to its visual beauty.
"The altars had become powdery as the church was lying neglected for 35 years, but have been treated and assembled again," says parish priest Fr Lourdino Pereira. More conservation work is being carried out to restore the artefacts in the church, he said.
"Goa has a wealth of wooden artefacts, idols, statues, altar pieces and furniture, but it is not restricted to churches and temples," Ketak Nachinolkar, a conservation architect said. Wooden treasures, be they pieces of antique furniture, chests and other assets can be found across the state, even shipwrecks, he added. But humidity caused by heavy rainfall and infestation of termites affects wooden objects, including the roofing.
Poonam Verma-Mascarenhas, a conservation architect, said deterioration of antiques due to climate calls for more efforts to upgrade conservation methods. While wooden antiques have been restored through conservation efforts in the past, a dearth of experts in the field was felt at an Indo-Italian workshop held recently at Telaulim on conservation of wooden cultural heritage, organized by Italian embassy and the Italian Culture Centre, New Delhi.
Four Italian experts, who are senior researchers from national council for research (CNR IVALSA) - Trees and Timber Institute, Italy, Claudio Pollini, Mauro Bernabei and Nicola Macchioni and Giorgio Garabelli, senior conservator, Torino, Italy, specializing in conservation of wooden cultural heritage and attending the workshop, facilitated interaction on Italian and Indian know-how. "This was in the area of conservation of wooden artefacts, starting from materials characterization till the most recent technologies for conservation," Nilabh Sen, director, Indian National Trust of Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) said. Conservation works being undertaken by INTACH at St Anne's church in their site laboratory were also reviewed.
"It is easy to scrape off and paint the antiques, but Italian experts advise caution, doing it centimeter by centimeter and observing every patch of work done, using microscopes. The idea is not to spoil the layers," Nachinolkar said.
Attended by professionals from Goa, Delhi, Ladakh, Bangalore, Mumbai, and other cities, the workshop focused through lectures, presentations of case studies and practical sessions, approaches to wood conservation, use of different materials for cleaning, consolidation and other aspects. " A proposal for development of joint Indo-Italian research projects in the area of conservation of material and architectural heritage has been mooted.
Archbishop Felipe Neri Ferrao inaugurated the workshop while Narendra Kumar, Commissioner cum Secretary, Archives and Archaeology, presided over the valedictory function. (TNN)
3 comments:
The Bishop and members of the Clergy at the Altinho Palace are busy selling land at Vanxim. They may even now think of selling the antiques as it will fetch them good price. Why is the Bishop Palace existing, only to issue statements nearing to the elections on whom to vote and whom not to? Why is the Priest involved with the Goondas at Vasco Municipal elections? Actual work is neglected and the Bishop House is getting into politics.
Churches and temples have become an easy target for everybody. It is your priests who should defend against these type of activities Dalia. The priests remain silent on the issues. In the olden times I remember that your priests were very strict. As a child even I was very afraid of them. I used to run along with my Christian friends to take the blessing of the priest if he happened to pass along the road.
Exactly my friend Chandrakant. We used to play football on the ground and the moment we saw our parish priest go on his evening walk, we used to leave our game and run to tske his blessings. When we were playing football or any other game we didn't even know the meaning of hindus or kristaums. We were friends. Always friends.
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