--------------------------------------------------------------------------- **** http://www.GOANET.org **** --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The First Konkani E-Cinema
BLACK Nhesop Atanchem Fashion Premiers at Masrah, Hawalli Auditorium, Kuwait on Aug 10, 2007 http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2007-August/060201.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Panaji, Aug 7: A ten day rainy spell caused a minor collapse of portions of an endangered seventeenth century church monument in Goa, even as conservation efforts to source funds for restoration dragged on. The incident finally propelled state archive authorities to hastily commit long-promised grants on Tuesday. The World Monuments Fund listed the massive 1695-built St Anne church in Talaulim, Goa among its hundred endangered monuments for 2000. WMF efforts are meant to galvanise local populations towards caring for architectural and cultural heritage. But seven years on, the worst fears of conservationists and parishioners of the church had begun to come true. On Monday a portion of staircase leading to the seventeenth century church's belfry collapsed. It reactivated efforts though to get the state government to commit moneys for a restoration fund. Prompted by an embarassed local MLA and parish priest, state archives this morning officially agreed to part-pay Rs 2.6 cr towards restoration to meet over half the cost of restoration. The WMF had agreed to put in the remainder Rs 1.6 cr. Nestled in a verdant valley off the beaten pilgrimage track, the church --- once the largest in Asia --- had developed cracks in several places of its towering structure, creepers growing into its thick walls, some of which contain secret passages. Though as ancient as the cluster of Old Goa World Heritage monuments, the church remained out of the Archeological Survey of India's mandate. A 1994 move to hand it over from the cash-strapped state archives to the ASI resulted in a unresolved bureaucratic tangle that left the monument without access to funding , aside from meagre parish resources. Church authorities are now hoping to speed up restoration work under the WMF's heritage management consultant in India.(ends) -- -- Pamela D'Mello Cell 9850 461649 http://pameladmello.goa-india.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/attachments/20070808/027fa808/attachment.html