Restorers of the Khortytsia National Reserve have mastered a new restoration specialty.

Restorers of the Khortytsia National Reserve have mastered a new restoration specialty.

Leading specialists from the National Research Restoration Center of Ukraine conducted an internship for Andriy Denysenko and Polina Petrashyna, employees of the restoration department, in the specialty of “artist-restorer of stone items.”

The 80-hour training course took place at the Khortytsia National Reserve under the tutelage of Tetyana Kovalenko, a restorer in the highest qualification category at the National Research Restoration Center of Ukraine, and with the participation of Serhiy Omelnyk, the head of the Kharkiv branch of the restoration center, and Dmytro Filatov, a second-category restorer.

The UNESCO representative office provided an important device for the educational process: a steam cleaner.

During the internship, the collection of stone sculptures in the reserve was examined, and their state of preservation was determined. The practical training focused on four stone monuments: two fragments of Polovtsian sculptures and two tombstones from the early 19th century.

The reserve’s restorers learned to identify the causes and types of damage to stone monuments, remove various types of surface contamination, strengthen the stone’s structure to prevent further deterioration, and apply a conservation coating.

The Khortytsia National Reserve is grateful to the National Research Restoration Center of Ukraine for providing knowledge and invaluable experience and for allowing the reserve’s specialists to master a new restoration specialty.

Special thanks to the UNESCO Representative Office and to Gerda Henkel personally for their assistance in organizing this year’s internship!