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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Christian shrine in Bethlehem undergoing restoration work

Associated Press

BETHLEHEM, West Bank – As visitors descend upon Bethlehem this holiday season, they will notice a different look for the Church of the Nativity. Wrapped in scaffolding, the basilica located at the site traditionally regarded as Jesus’ birthplace is undergoing a much-needed facelift after 600 years.

Experts say that water is leaking from the rooftop and threatens to cause serious damage to mosaics and other priceless items.

Project manager Afif Tweme said the first stage of the project began in September and addresses the most pressing issues: the rooftop and windows.

“The water also has a bad effect on the plastering surfaces, on the mosaics, on the floors, on the frescoes. It could damage any, any historical elements inside the church,” said Tweme, who works for the Community Development Group, a Palestinian engineering consulting firm.

The companies carrying out the works are obliged to minimize any disruptions to visitors and make sure that pilgrims can “pass freely inside the church and safely,” he added.

The church is one of Christianity’s most visited and sacred shrines. Standing above the grotto where, according to tradition, Jesus was born, the church attracted more than 2 million visitors last year. But the building, with remnants up to 1,500 years old, has been neglected for decades.

Both the World Monuments Fund, a U.S.-based nonprofit group dedicated to protecting historic sites, and the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO have placed the church on their lists of endangered sites. And a high-tech survey by a consortium of Italian experts in 2011 called for urgent repairs.

The city of Bethlehem is situated in a part of the West Bank where the Palestinians have self-rule. The Western-backed Palestinian Authority has taken the lead and is financing a great portion of the works, said Ziad al-Bandak, an adviser on Christian affairs to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

He said the government has provided $1 million, while an additional $800,000 is coming from the private sector. The rest is coming from European countries such as France, Hungary, Russia and Greece, contributing to the roughly $3 million in total needed for the first phase, al-Bandak said.

Beyond the painstaking process of preserving a delicate holy site, the work has been complicated by the sensitive relations among the three Christian denominations that share ownership of the church.

The Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches have traditionally viewed each other with deep suspicion. They run the Nativity Church according to a 19th century codex, known as the Status Quo, which assigns responsibilities for upkeep that are jealously guarded by each denomination. Relations are so fraught that these turf battles have occasionally escalated into fistfights between clergymen.

A senior church official said the three denominations would never have been able to reach an agreement on their own. But once the Palestinian Authority stepped in, all three churches accepted the decision.

The church was built in the 4th century by Saint Helena over a cave where the Virgin Mary is said to have given birth. What pilgrims mostly see today is the basilica church built by the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, who ruled from 527 to 565 AD.

The construction doesn’t include the area that is the main focus of the pilgrimage: the place located under the altar crypt that hosts the 14-pointed silver star marking the spot where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus was born.