On Friday, October 10th, Dr. Slavko Dimović, Director of the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, and the Abbot of the Holy Imperial Serbian Lavra of Hilandar Monastery, Archimandrite Methodius, signed an Agreement on Scientific and Expert Cooperation. The agreement stipulates that, in the coming period, the Institute will contribute its professional and scientific expertise to the protection and preservation of the cultural treasures located within the Hilandar Monastery.
The cooperation primarily relates to the study of cultural heritage, which includes the analysis of materials from which cultural artifacts are made, the assessment of their status and degree of damage, as well as procedures that should enable their adequate restoration, conservation, and sterilization. Of particular significance for Hilandar Monastery is the fact that the Institute employs a specialized approach to artifacts, based on the use of portable, non-invasive, and non-destructive analytical techniques.
These methods allow for the examination of objects at their current location, without compromising their integrity through transportation or sampling. Equally important is the possibility of sterilizing sacred objects (icons, vessels, and other liturgical items) using irradiation, due to all the advantages this method has over other available sterilization techniques.
The Vinča Institute delegation included, in addition to Director Dr. Slavko Dimović, Dr. Predrag Škobalj, Dr. Ivan Lazović, Dr. Velibor Andrić, and Đorđe Ogrizović, an assistant from the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy at the University of Belgrade, who contributed to establishing the cooperation between Hilandar Monastery and the Vinča Institute.
Abbot Methodius thanked the Institute's representatives for their readiness to carry out the mentioned activities aimed at protecting the cultural heritage items of the monastery. They emphasized the importance of establishing this cooperation. The collaboration begins in the year when Hilandar celebrates two significant jubilees – 850 years since the birth of Saint Sava and 35 years since the reestablishment of the communal way of life in the monastery.
