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

A collection 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 energetic non secular entity.

“Our shared intention is for the monastery to proceed its unbroken journey below the 15-century-old establishment,” mentioned the Greek overseas minister George Gerapetritis in Athens in early August, in keeping with 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 related feedback earlier this yr. In accordance with Egyptian media stories, 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 location the place Moses is alleged 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 intensive 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 situated 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 legislation fits

In 2012, nonetheless, the South Sinai governing authority started authorized proceedings to formally take management of the location. It opened 71 courtroom circumstances, one for every plot of land owned by the monastery, in keeping with Christos Kobiliris, an Athens-based lawyer who has been appearing on behalf of the Church.

In Might this yr, 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 will have preserved the monastery’s proper to all 71 plots. As an alternative, the ruling gave Egypt the fitting to roughly two-thirds of the land, whereas additionally guaranteeing the monks’ proper to worship and to manage the monastery constructing.

Regardless of the blended 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 help the Bedouin neighborhood who rely partly on the monastery. Equally necessary is the implication for the monks’ prerogative to stay in Egypt.

Weak monks

“The ruling offers the monks the fitting to make use of the 29 non secular plots, however to not personal them,” Kobiliris explains. “The monks solely have an annual short-term residence allow—solely the archbishop has citizenship. Which means with out having possession and with out additionally having citizenship, the monks are weak, and the Egyptian state may determine in opposition to renewing their residence permits.”

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

5-star website

Egyptian media shops have reported that one of many new lodges will probably be constructed on Mount Sinai, immediately above the monastery. In accordance with native stories, 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 lodge 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 undertaking already below approach, the Church seems to distrust the soothing statements from each Greece and Egypt. Fears stay that the land and monastery will probably be confiscated, and that the monastery will merely grow to be a museum, which the Egyptian state would be capable of 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.