Bialystok University of Technology will support the Suprasl Monastery in the campaign #ratujemykatakumby. Plans to strengthen the structure and stop the destruction

On 29 February 2024 on the initiative of Assoc. Prof. Marta Kosior-Kazberuk, DSc, PhD, Eng , Rector of Bialystok University of Technology, another meeting of a team of experts representing Bialystok University of Technology and the University of Bialystok was held. There was also a representative of the Monastery of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Supraśl, the owner of the facility.

– For Bialystok University of Technology, it is a challenge, but also participation in a very prestigious project – says Assoc. Prof. Marta Kosior-Kazberuk, DSc, PhD, Eng, Rector of Bialystok University of Technology. – Each university brings something, but each will also gain new knowledge.

It was a working meeting and it was related to the Monastery in Supraśl obtaining financial sources for preliminary works securing the facility against progressive degradation. The funds will allow to intensify research works, both in the archaeological, architectural and constructional aspects, and above all to strengthen the damaged structure and bring it to the stage of the so-called “permanent ruin”, i.e. to inhibit the processes of further destruction.

In order to achieve such a state, specialist restoration works should be carried out consisting in introducing chemical substances into the damaged structures of brick walls. Such a reinforced historic building should ultimately be covered with a steel structure, creating permanent protection against the harmful effects of weather conditions and access for people and animals.

All works will be performed by a specialist company selected as a result of the tender procedure, conducted in the ‘design and build’ mode. The work of the team of experts supporting the representatives of the Monastery in Supraśl will be coordinated by prof. Jerzy Uścinowicz, DSc, PhD, Eng, Arch., head of the Unit for Architecture of Local Cultures at the Faculty of Architecture of Bialystok University of Technology, and among the experts are: Assoc. Prof. Janusz Krentowski, DSc, PhD, Eng from the Department of Building Structures and Structural Mechanics of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences of Bialystok University of Technology and archaeologist – prof. Maciej Karczewski, DSc, PhD (UwB Bialystok) of the University of Bialystok.

In 2021, the rectors of four Polish universities: Bialystok University of Technology, the University of Bialystok, the Medical University of Bialystok and the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw undertook the mission of saving the 16th-century Supraśl monastic catacombs. Its aim was to jointly conduct multidisciplinary scientific research and expertise to determine the state of preservation of catacombs, develop substantive assumptions for their restoration and conservation, and support future conservation activities carried out at this extraordinary monument, which in 2023 was granted the Historic Monument of the Republic of Poland status.

The years 2022-2023 were full of many important undertakings related to the scientific research of the current state of the catacombs and their surroundings. Extensive activities were undertaken: registration and design, as well as typological and comparative queries, in particular in the field of theology, archaeology, architecture, heritage protection and monument conservation, history, art history, anthropology, material engineering. These activities in the first stage consisted in conducting archaeological, architectural and conservation research and analysis, necessary to develop substantive assumptions for the conservation of catacombs as well as georadar and excavation research, which in the future will enable the determination of the boundaries of the burial cemetery around the catacombs. At the same time, intensive queries and analytical works of historians and architects were undertaken, aimed at recreating the history of the catacombs, with particular emphasis on the history of their construction, reconstruction and destruction after their cessation of use, as well as determining their original shape and identifying people buried in the catacombs.

At the end of 2023, Military University of Technology joined the group of universities in the campaign #ratujemykatakumby.

– Together with Bialystok University of Technology, we want to save and ensure the availability of a very valuable architectural monument, which is a testimony to our common history at the junction of three countries – assures Col. Ryszard Chmielewski, DSc, PhD, Eng, director of the Institute of Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodesy of Military University of Technology

Scientists from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń are also taking part in the campaign.

by jk