On January 24, 2014, the Public Board of Guardians of the Athonite Monastery of St. Panteleimon held a meeting. It was chaired Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

The leaders of the government and the Russian Orthodox Church in their capacity of co-chair of the Public Board informed the meeting about some results of the work of the Board, which was established in 2011, and presented the agenda of the meeting. Its task was to consider the work carried out by the International Foundation for the Restoration and Preservation of the Cultural and Spiritual Heritage of the monastery and to prepare events devoted to the millennium of the Russian presence on Mount Athos to be celebrated in 2016.

Mr. Medvedev clarified that the point is to restore a number of buildings, to build roads and to revive some other parts of the monastery. “Anyway, we plan to complete the primary general construction work this year and to carry out the whole complex of restoration work as planned to include the installation of up-to-date engineering infrastructure. We will also have to define a list of facilities to be restored by the millennium and the work to be continued after 2016”, he said.

As His Holiness Kirill said in his remarks, “to come in touch with shrines and to visit the monastery is of a great importance, really great spiritual importance for people today. And Russia has traditional millennium-long relations with Mount Athos. For this reason the Holy Mount is of a very great importance, the more so that Russian monks are present there in St. Panteleimon’s and other monasteries”.

His Holiness expressed satisfaction with the progress of the restoration work. “A great amount of restoration work has been carried out on a very high level. I believe nothing like this, namely, serious scientific restoration, has ever happened on Athos, at least in our monastery”, he said. The property to be restored includes Xilourgou, Monastery of the Assumption of Our Lady, Old Rusik and some other monasteries.

Source: Russian orthodox Church

Comment by hv: Restauration at full speed of Panteleimon monastery in september 2013. The Russians have very ambitious plans for Panteleimonos and other buildings as you can read above. What to think about these crates with a complete windturbine inside which we saw near the Panteleimonos monastery in september 2013. I hope this tower will not interfere with the surroundings and disturb the beautifull view on the monastery. I am a little bit concerned that the Russians are overdoing it by constructing and building to many unneccesary roads and buildings.

     hv