Fears over oldest Christian monastery as Egypt’s tourist megaproject looms – The Art Newspaper

A sequence of state-level conferences between Greece and Egypt seems to have calmed the long-running dispute over St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, with Greek and Egyptian ministers affirming that the monastery will stay an lively non secular entity.

“Our shared intention is for the monastery to proceed its unbroken journey below the 15-century-old established order,” stated the Greek overseas minister George Gerapetritis in Athens in early August, in response to the Orthodox Instances.

Gerapetritis, who reached settlement within the dispute with the Egyptian overseas minister Badr Abdelatty, added: “I’m satisfied Egypt will proceed to honour its long-standing custom of respect for all religions and denominations, which it has cultivated all through historical past.”

Abdelatty made comparable feedback earlier this 12 months. In response to Egyptian media reviews, he reiterated Egyptian President Fattah El-Sisi’s personal affirmation of the monastery’s non secular character.

Moses and the burning bush

Constructed between 548 and 565 on the positioning the place Moses is claimed to have encountered the burning bush, St Catherine’s is the oldest monastery on this planet that’s nonetheless working. It has the most important assortment of icons on this planet and is second solely to the Vatican Library for its in depth assortment of manuscripts.

Due to its nice age, it predates the schism between the Greek Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, remaining a part of the Greek Orthodox Church regardless of being positioned in Egypt. The Church’s possession of its lands was put in place below the Ottoman Empire, which dominated over each Egypt and Greece, and remained successfully untouched following the dissolution of the empire greater than a century in the past.

Dozens of regulation fits

In 2012, nevertheless, the South Sinai governing authority started authorized proceedings to formally take management of the positioning. It opened 71 courtroom instances, one for every plot of land owned by the monastery, in response to Christos Kobiliris, an Athens-based lawyer who has been performing on behalf of the Church.

In Could this 12 months, Kobiliris says, the 2 events have been about to succeed in a settlement, however simply days earlier than its announcement, the Egyptian courtroom for South Sinai issued a ruling that differed from the anticipated state-level compromise that might have preserved the monastery’s proper to all 71 plots. As an alternative, the ruling gave Egypt the proper to roughly two-thirds of the land, whereas additionally guaranteeing the monks’ proper to worship and to manage the monastery constructing.

Regardless of the combined ruling, many within the Greek Orthodox Church took it as an indication that the monastery was below menace. The farmland across the monastery affords its 26 monks entry to key assets corresponding to water and olives, which they want for their very own survival in addition to to assist the Bedouin group who rely partly on the monastery. Equally vital is the implication for the monks’ prerogative to stay in Egypt.

Susceptible monks

“The ruling offers the monks the proper to make use of the 29 non secular plots, however to not personal them,” Kobiliris explains. “The monks solely have an annual momentary residence allow—solely the archbishop has citizenship. Meaning with out having possession and with out additionally having citizenship, the monks are susceptible, and the Egyptian state may resolve towards renewing their residence permits.”

The bigger problem right here is the Nice Transfiguration Undertaking, a state-led, mega­challenge launched by President El-Sisi in 2020. The purpose of the initiative is to redevelop the southern Sinai Peninsula as an enormous vacationer hub, with the development of luxurious resorts, housing ventures, leisure exercise areas and procuring complexes. Deliberate infrastructure, corresponding to a street community, water provide and the brand new St Catherine’s Airport, will hyperlink the world with the Sinai seaside resorts of Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh.

5-star website

Egyptian media retailers have reported that one of many new resorts will likely be constructed on Mount Sinai, instantly above the monastery. In response to native reviews, at a proper ceremony in March 2024 on the monastery, the Egyptian prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, signed an settlement with the German hospitality firm Steigenberger Accommodations to open a five-star resort in 2025.

The Egyptian ministry of overseas affairs didn’t reply to a remark request; the Steigenberger Accommodations group declined to share additional data.

Within the context of the large-scale and state-led improvement challenge already below method, the Church seems to distrust the soothing statements from each Greece and Egypt. Fears stay that the land and monastery will likely be confiscated, and that the monastery will merely develop into a museum, which the Egyptian state would be capable to exploit as a vacationer website. Ought to that occur, it will imply an finish to the 15 centuries of steady use as a Christian monastery that gained it designation as a World Heritage Website in 2002 from Unesco. For St Catherine’s, there’s a lot on the road.