The representatives of Swedish science and museum affairs visited the Reserve

The representatives of Swedish science and museum affairs visited the Reserve

The representatives of Swedish science and museum affairs Fred Hawker and Lars Amreus paid a return visit to the Khortytsia National Reserve.

Professor Fred Hawker is the museum’s scientific director. He studies the underwater history of Sweden and, above all, the history of Swedish shipbuilding.

Lars Amreus is the director general of all maritime and transport museums in Sweden.

Previously in March, employees of the Reserve visited Stockholm, where they had the opportunity to share the experience of evacuation and preservation of cultural heritage during the war, as well as to get acquainted with the unique monuments of Swedish history in the Vasa Museum.

Vasa is perhaps the most famous sunken ship in the world. The flagship built on the orders of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus was raised from the bottom in 1957.

The purpose of this visit, which will last several days, is to establish contacts with the cultural public of Ukraine, and, first of all, with museum workers. In addition to the comprehensive military assistance from Sweden to our country, its cultural elite seeks to support us in the humanitarian sphere as well. It is not by chance that our guests refer to the treaty concluded between Pylyp Orlyk and the Swedish crown, in which the latter promised to defend and protect Ukraine from external enemies. The Swedish side is interested in taking an active part in the restoration of the cultural heritage of Ukraine after the war, in promoting humanitarian and scientific projects.

One of the goals of the visit was to get acquainted with the collection of sunken ships preserved on Khortytsia. In addition, a whole set of measures was taken to digitize underwater monuments, which includes the creation of high-precision three-dimensional models of each ship using laser scanning and photogrammetry. These works are of particular importance in the conditions of shelling of the city by Russian troops and the inevitable risk for large-sized antiquities that cannot be evacuated.

These works are the beginning of a long-term cooperation between the Vasa Museum and the Khortytsia National Reserve, as well as the preparation for joint projects after the victory over the invaders.