The St Olav’s Church, West Bengal has won UNESCO’s Award of Distinction for conservation.
Of the six countries presenting 13 projects, India walked away with four awards.
Awards of Merit were handed to Cama Building, Mumbai Central and Mahidpur Fort, Madhya Pradesh while for the restoration of the Main Building, The Doon School at Dehradun was given an honourable mention.
The St Olav’s Church in Serampore is one of the most prominent monuments from the Danish rule. Locally known as the Danish Church, it was one of the 100 buildings that were constructed by the Danish management between 1755 and 1845, at a time when the town was called Frederiksnagore. Administered by the Calcutta Diocesan Trust Association, the 210-year-old church was kept under lock and key since 2013 as there was danger of its collapse.
The restoration work was carried out by a partnership between Serampore College and architectural firm Continuity, in collaboration with National Museum of Denmark (NMD). The restoration team included Conservation architect Manish Chakraborti from Kolkata and Dr Flemming Aalund from NMD.
A panel of international conservation experts met in Bangkok to review the 40 Heritage Awards entries, including 34 in the Conservation category and six for New Design.
Duong Bich Hanh, Chair of the Jury and Chief of UNESCO Bangkok’s Culture Unit, said she was pleased to see the Heritage Awards encourage good conservation practices in the region.
“Jury members were delighted with the quality of this year’s entries to the Heritage Awards,” Hanh said. “This showed increased knowledge and higher standards in conservation work across Asia-Pacific.”
source: indiatimes