BETHLEHEM CHURCH REPAIRED

Church of Nativity in Christ’s birthplace restored to former splendour

MASKED for centuries by the soot of candles and lately by scaffolding, the mosaics of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity have been restored to their Crusader-era splendour in time for Christmas.

Over the past 15 months, experts have cleaned and repaired surviving fragments of the 12th century masterworks, preserving 125 sq m of what was once 2,000 sq m of glittering gold and glass.

The rest has been eaten away by wear, humidity, wars and earthquakes.

Now the restored remains shine against the white walls above the heads of visitors to the church in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city here that marks the birthplace of Jesus.

Overlooking the nave are seven angels framed in gold who appear to have landed on a carpet of vivid green grass.

Each is placed between windows symbolising divine light. One of the angels was discovered during the restoration work beneath a layer of plaster.

“These mosaics are made of gold leaf placed between two glass plates,” said Marcello Piacenti, who supervises the work on behalf of his Italian family restoration firm Piacenti.

“Only faces and limbs are drawn with small pieces of stone.”

Ibrahim Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian Authority engineer, said the transformation caused by the restoration was striking.

“When you entered the church before, you could not even make out that there were mosaics, it was so black.”

In a rarity for the period, the works were signed by the craftsmen responsible, he said.

In the church choir, visitors can see an image of St Thomas, incredulous at the resurrection, poking his finger into Christ’s wound from his crucifixion.

Elsewhere there is the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Father Asbed Balian is the senior cleric of the Armenian church at the basilica, where property rights were shared with the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox faiths.

After seeing the completed restoration, he said, he was “stunned”.

“Spiritually, we feel more exalted,” he added.

On the nave walls, the restorers also gave renewed life to paintings dating from 1127 and the end of the 12th century, when wealthy pilgrims commissioned artists to paint their family or home region saints, for display in the holy site.

“These portraits were barely distinguishable, blackened by the years,” Piacenti said.

The first Church of the Nativity was built in the fourth century by Roman Emperor Constantine and his mother Helene.

That original structure was believed to have been destroyed by fire, but Piacenti said no trace of burning was found during the restoration work, leading him to think an earthquake was a more likely cause.

The Byzantines rebuilt the basilica in the sixth century and the Crusaders later added to it.

Due to disagreements between the three faiths responsible for the site, the building had gone unrepaired since the middle of the 19th century.