Restoration of the Mosaik on Basilica in Oktisi Completed - Valuable Early Christian Mosaic Available to Public

      (Utrinski Vesnik, 16.10.2003) - Comprehensive conservation and restoration work on a floor mosaic from a basilica discovered near St. Nicholas Church in Oktisi, Struga area is closing at Dr. Nikola Nezlobinski National Museum in Struga today. A professional team led by senior conservationist and painter Dragan Vergovski - Alpi has worked on the mosaic in the past 30 days. The mosaic, one of the most preserved one in our region, is particularly important because of its specificity in relation to others given that the central image is called “Source of Christianity” and has not been found in any other early Christian basilica in the Balkans.
      The mosaic was first discovered in mid last century and was dated to the late 4th century. Its conservation and restoration started in 1990 under the supervision of our famous archaeologist Dr. Vera Bitrakova-Grozdanova. The fragmented floor mosaic 90 cm. of which have been unearthed is considered to have covered an area of around 200 square meters. As Vergovski-Alpi says, the work has been carried out in a few phases - removal of the mosaic and cleaning up old plasters and the lower surface, welding back the removed fragments and cleaned fragmented into aluminum casts. In this final phase, retouch of the partial reconstruction of the damaged parts has been made, whereas gathering the pieces together and presentation of the mosaic in Macedonia and elsewhere is planned for 2004. It should be noted that the technique of welding of the mosaic in aluminum casts means that it can be exhibited outside the museum of Struga.