Dresden (dpa/sn) – After nine months of restoration, almost 1,600 historical files from the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Saxony that were in acute danger have been secured. Thanks to the financial support from federal funds, they can now be “much better” used by the authorities and research, said state curator Alf Furkert on Tuesday at the end of the project in Dresden. The coordination office for the preservation of written cultural assets contributed 66,250 euros to save exactly 1575 “old files” from A for indulgence to Z for Zwota. Several of them had been blocked for use for a long time.
From September 2021, the natural decay of the sometimes highly acidic paper from the first half of the 20th century was first delayed by deacidification. After that, restorers repaired damage caused by intensive use such as cracks, defects or mold residues and renewed thread stitching or bindings. Previously integrated architectural drawings and plans have been removed from the files and will be kept separately in the future.
According to the information, the “unique stock” will also be digitized, depending on the financing, this is planned for the next two to four years. The documents reflect the development of the state preservation of monuments in Saxony from the establishment of the Royal Saxon Commission for the Preservation of Art Monuments in 1894 to the founding of the State Office in 1917 up to the period after 1945. They document cultural monuments such as churches, manors, towers, bridges and cultural assets – altars, baptismal fonts or paintings, show the networking of the art and architecture scene up to the 1950s and contain evidence of cooperation far beyond national borders.
