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Students of VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar" willing to participate in the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris

16 Април 2019

The students of Architecture major at Varna Free University will send a letter of support to Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, expressing their desire to help restore the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral – a world heritage site.

"There is no system in Europe for collecting statistical data about world heritage sites that have suffered losses from fires" shows a study conducted by experts from Varna Free University under the project COST - Action C17. Architectural Heritage: Losses from Fires Affecting Cultural and Historical Buildings - Cultural Sites. Years ago, 16 countries participating in the project including Bulgaria, France, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United States, Russia and others, have signaled the problem.

The devastating fire in the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral clearly shows that the problem persists and it is necessary to adopt a number of legal, organizational and technical measures related to the safeguarding of the world's immovable cultural heritage.
Historically, Bulgaria has also suffered serious damage from fires that occurred in buildings – cultural sites:
Varna was on fire on 10 August 1854. The fire started from the port, but because of the strong wind from the sea, the fire reached the central part of the town. Similar data is available for the towns of Shumen, Sofia, Stara Zagora, Bratsigovo and others.
The western wing of the Bachkovo Monastery burned completely in 1901, and in 1947 a fire destroyed the southern courtyard where the monastery's library was located.

The Ivan Vazov National Theatre, built in 1904, burned completely in 1923. Later, during a major renovation in 1971 - 1975, when the Chamber Hall was created, part of the original structure of the building was destroyed due to error, as the design and construction documentation of the 1923 post-fire restoration was not found.

Among the causes of fires, according to another European FiRE - TECH survey, the greatest share have arson attacks, followed by welding activities as part of the repair and restoration works. And according to the purpose of the buildings – cultural sites, the greatest losses from fires were caused in religious buildings, theatres, libraries, schools and others.

During the last 10 years, students of VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar" majoring in National Security Protection conducted scientific and practical investigations on the fire risk of cultural sites throughout the country. To date, more than 600 sites have been surveyed.

The VFU is working under a form of cooperation entitled Updating the List of Buildings - Immovable Cultural Assets in Varna under a long-term project which will involve students and lecturers of Architecture and the master’s degree programme in Preservation of Cultural Heritage.
An exploratory work on the updating of the National Register of Immovable Cultural Assets ​​is envisaged - search, study and preparation of final assessments and conservation regimes. The project is being developed jointly with the Municipality of Varna and the National Institute for Immovable Cultural Heritage.