PROTECTION PROCEDURES
Earthquake
Location of the event: Lat 40,183 N, Lon 21,660 E
Region: Greece, Grevena and Kozani prefectures,
Date-Time: 1995, May 13, 08:47:17
Intensity: 6,6 magnitude
Description of moveable
works of art
Type: Historical and Religious buildings, frescoes and religious items
Author:
Title:
Size:
Quantity: According to the archaeologist Mrs Xanthi SavolpoulouKatsiki serious damages have suffered 20 monuments in Kozani and
25 in Grevena.
Date: built between 15th and 18th century
Support:
Location: Grevena and Kozani prefectures
Brief damage description
The monastery of Zavorda built in 1534 suffered great damages in
its architectural and cultural elements. Important number of
documents, books and religious artefacts were stored in the
monastery. In most buildings roofs and walls collapsed or suffered
serious damages.
In the monastery of Panagia built in 1633 serious fissures appeared
in most walls and many parts of the buildings collapsed. However,
damaged also from previous earthquakes, the monastery was
almost under total collapse.
In late Byzantine monastery of Taxiarchis the main basilica suffered
damages at its roof which partly collapsed.
The rest damaged monuments were mainly small chapels and
churches at the country side, without important architectural
elements, hosting however marvellous frescos of the Byzantine
period most of which were destroyed by the earthquake. These are
dated between the 15th and 18th century. In most of these cases the
Project co-funded by DG ECHO
Grant Agreement No.070401/2009/540426/SUB/A4
roofs collapsed due to the weak constructions destroying frescos
and wooden crafts.
(Pavlides 1998)
Description of the
protection procedures
after the earthquake
It was a great lack that during the period of 1990 to 1994 Mr Sotiirios
Kissas curator of the Byzantine eforia and Mrs Savopoulou-Katsiki
had recorded and documented all the damaged monuments.
Pictures of all frescos and wooden crafts exist and these helped the
restoration of the damaged churches in the cases where it was
possible.
The numerous, totally or partly collapsed, Byzantine churches and
monasteries were immediately mapped and documented,
emergency restoration and conservation measures were taken to
protect buildings, frescos, paintings and other religious items from
the heavy winter. Rescuing and conservation actions were taken
during the same year to prevent further collapses and destruction of
the cultural heritage, and iron roofs or supports to the walls were
emplaced in order to protect buildings from the heavy winter.
A detailed study for the restoration and conservation of the damaged
monuments was developed in the next years, following the
experience of the Thessaloniki earthquake, in order to restore
gradually the monuments and the cultural heritage that were in the
contrition to be repaired. The cost from the building damages was
estimated to 450 million dollars
(Pavlides 1998)
Overall evaluation on the
Protection procedures
(insufficient, sufficient,
good, very good)
The described protection processes could be assigned as very
effective and sufficient. Prior to EQ the monuments were studied,
documented and stored in data bases. Rescue operations were
based on these former studies and immediately were focused on the
most important monuments taking actions to protect them form the
expected bad weather conditions. Later based on the pictures and
the studies most of the monuments were restored.
This good experience can be compared to other earlier efforts that
are related with damages to constructional monuments in Greece,
like churches, monasteries, mosques, minarets etc,, where in most
cases were not successful and can be considered as bad. Protection
procedures in these early periods were dependent or in direct
response to political, social and economic situations of each period.
Most places were under Ottoman occupation (like Heraklion) or have
faced several territorial wars (like Thessaloniki) till very recently.
A characteristic situation is related with the 1856 Heraklion
earthquake. During that earthquake, and several other previous,
many Venetian buildings, churches and mosques collapsed. Instead
of restoring them the Ottoman authorities decided to use many of the
marbles of these monuments as pavements at the roads or as
constructional material to new buildings. The Venetian St Titus
church that collapsed during that event was later rebuild with new
material, as most of the old marble was destroyed, in a very different
architectural style resembling more a normal mosque than the older
church. The same however, has happened in later disasters in
Heraklion so that many old churches and Venetian buildings of the
Project co-funded by DG ECHO
Grant Agreement No.070401/2009/540426/SUB/A4
town do not exist anymore.
Description of the present
state
(Damages, return to original
location etc.)
Bibliography
Most of the churches and large part of frescoes were restored in
original situation
Papazachos and Papazachou 1997. The Earthquakes of Greece. Ziti eds.
Thessaloniki.
Papazachos B., Papaioanou Ch., Papazachos C., Savaidis A. (1997).
Atlas of Isoseismal maps for strong swallow earthquakes in Grece and
Surrounding area. Univ. Thessaloniki Publs., N.4.
Pavlides S. (1998). The earthquake of the 13th May 1995 in Kozani and
Grevena: a scientific and social approack. Region of Western Macedonia,
Prefectures of Kozani and Grevena, Institute of book and Reading, Kozani
420p.
Project co-funded by DG ECHO
Grant Agreement No.070401/2009/540426/SUB/A4