Sponsored by the Washington, DC Chapter of the
American Research Center in Egypt
As part of the Ambassador’s Cultural Series

Egyptian Embassy, April 26, 2005

On Tuesday evening, April 26th, at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, DC, Michael Jones of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) delivered an excellent lecture on the conservation and restoration work at St. Paul’s Monastery. Entitled “ARCE's Conservation Project at the Monastery of St. Paul beside the Red Sea,” the lecture was presented to a group of 100 appreciative members of the Washington, DC chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE-DC) and invitees to the Ambassador’s Cultural Series.

(r-l) H.E. Ambassador Nabil Fahmy, Mrs. Fahmy, Michael Jones and ARCE-DC President Samir Gabriel

Following a pre-lecture reception hosted by the Embassy, and after welcoming remarks from Ayman Zaineldine of the Embassy and ARCE-DC President Samir Gabriel, Mr. Jones began his presentation with a description of the lives of St. Paul and St. Anthony and an overview of ARCE’s conservation work at the monasteries of those two saints. Mr. Jones noted that when ARCE finished its work at St. Anthony’s Monastery in 1999, the monks at St. Paul’s Monastery asked ARCE to conserve the wall paintings there. ARCE has recently completed the project to conserve and preserve the architecture and artistic treasures of this important ancient church and the lecture was accompanied by excellent photographs showing the wall paintings and other restoration work prior to conservation as well as during the work and after completion of the work.

The Monastery of St. Paul beside the Red Sea stands on the site traditionally associated with the site where St. Paul, the “First Hermit” spent his long and solitary life as an ascetic hermit in the desert, and where St. Anthony and St. Paul met. The Cave Church, located at the historic and spiritual heart of the Monastery, contains Medieval wall paintings of the 13th and 14th centuries and unique 18th century murals painted by a soon to be prominent monk of the Monastery.

Much of the conservation work was performed by a team of Italian conservators and the monks at St. Paul’s also were very active during the conservation work, lending assistance whenever possible, and feeding the conservators. Throughout the conservation, Egyptians trained with the expert conservators.

As part of the conservation, ARCE had to remove the 20th century cement from walls and floors to prevent the dampness that was slowly destroying the walls. The 18th century wall paintings in the Dome of the Martyrs were the first tackled by conservators, followed by the paintings in the Dome over the Altar of St. Anthony. Many of the 18th century wall paintings, dating to 1712-1714, were painted by a monk at St. Paul’s. That monk later became Coptic Pope John XV in the 1730s and 1740s.

Also conserved were the windows and window grills – that work including removing blocks that had covered the windows for years - as well as cleaning the woodwork at the Monastery. The final process in conserving the paintings was to put a “reversible” protective layer on the paintings.

Exterior work also was part of the restoration and conservation. A drain was constructed near a garden made of Nile clay (the clay was brought to the Monastery by pilgrims) and a retaining wall was constructed to allow the water to flow away from the church.

Now that work at the Monastery is finished, ongoing preservation work is the subject of discussions with the monks. The monastery is a “living” part of Coptic life and part of the continuing problem is physical touching of the wall paintings by pilgrims. One possible solution is installation of glass screens over the paintings.

Mr. Jones concluded his lecture with a question and answer period, which was followed by more refreshments from the Embassy.

Michael Jones is an archaeologist and Egyptologist who has been working in Egypt since the 1970s on archaeological projects in different parts of the country including Qasr Ibrim (Nubia), Kom Ombo, Luxor, Karnak, Tell el-Amarna, Giza and Wadi Firan (Sinai). Since 1996 he has been Project Manager for ARCE on the implementation of USAID funded conservation projects including those at Quseir Fort, the Monasteries of St. Anthony and St. Paul, and the "Red Monastery" at Sohag.