Italy to allocate EUR 45M to rebuild historical center of Odessa

This was stated at a meeting of the Acting Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Rostyslav Karandieiev with Special Envoy for the Reconstruction of Ukraine Davide La Cecilia and Consul of the Italian Embassy in Ukraine Stefano Moser, Ukrinform reports, citing the press service of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

According to the report, the parties discussed a project to rebuild the war-torn historical center of Odesa.

During the meeting, La Cecilia spoke about the plan for the restoration of Odesa. According to him, the project includes three parts, including the restoration of the Transfiguration Cathedral, the protection and digital accounting of 52 cultural heritage sites included in the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger, as well as the development of a master plan for the city, which will include recommendations regarding development of Odesa and involvement of other funds and partner countries in recovery.

He added that the total cost of a three-year plan is EUR 45 million.

"Regarding the Transfiguration Cathedral, the first step is to restore the roof, as well as to close the hole left by a missile. We plan to carry out these works before the beginning of the winter of 2024. Half a million euros have already been allocated for the restoration of the roof. In general, we plan to allocate 2 million euros for the restoration of the church," La Cecilia said.

According to him, UNESCO can provide assistance in the implementation of the recovery plan. In particular, it is planned to involve the Ukrainian representative office of the organization and create a supervisory board with the participation of Italian and Ukrainian institutions, as well as UNESCO.

Karandieiev, in turn, thanked Ukraine's partners for the initiative. He noted that the idea of creating a joint supervisory board is relevant, as it will lead to the systematic implementation of the restoration plan.

"We would like to talk not only about the reconstruction of real estate and monuments, but also about assistance to institutions. In our opinion, an effective tool of assistance is the creation of patronage, when powerful Italian cultural institutions could, through a memorandum, take patronage of some of our institutions. For example, Milan's La Scala could cooperate with the Odesa Opera, and the National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome could cooperate with the Odesa Fine Arts Museum. We are ready to act as moderators of such a partnership," Karandieiev said.

La Cecilia said that aspects of cooperation between institutions would be implemented as part of an agreement between Ukraine, Italy and UNESCO.

Photo credit: Ministry of Culture and Information Policy