... The presentation of the technical expertise in the Bendery fortress ...

The technical expertise of the Bendery fortress was presented simultaneously with the transfer to the citadel museum of several archaeological finds excavated during the work.

Bendery Fortress urgent measures are required to ensure the safety of the structure. These are the conclusions of the technical expertise carried out by an Italian company selected as part of an international competition in the project “Confidence Building Measures”, supported by the European Union and implemented by UNDP Moldova.

According to experts, the most serious problems of the fortress are the voids in the walls remaining after the destruction of wooden beams, the unreliable foundation of the bastion and the poor condition of one of the towers. The project to preserve the fortress will be implemented by the same company. The conservation work will have to be performed by a company that will be selected by the end of the year on a competitive basis. The competition will be held by the EU's Confidence Building Measures Program, implemented by UNDP.

To conduct a technical examination of the Bendery fortress, experts used innovative technical methods. In particular, they made  a tomography of the walls and a geo-scan of the adjacent territory, which made it possible to detect voids in the walls and problems with the foundation of the bastion. To confirm the findings of the scan, experts also excavated in several places on the territory of the citadel. During these works, under the supervision of an archaeologist from Chisinau, they found a coin, two cores, two bowls and two horseshoes of the XVI-XVII centuries, as well as a large number of fragments of ceramics belonging to different periods. These archaeological finds were transferred to the administration of the fortress on February 4, 2020, at the beginning of the event, where the results of a technical examination were presented.

At the end of last year, the European Union announced the support for the restoration of the Bender Fortress and the Chisinau Circus, allocating about 2 million euros for each of the facilities.

Projects are implemented through the EU's Confidence Building Measures Program, which is being implemented by UNDP. The goal of this program is to build trust between the residents of both banks of the Dniester River, involving them in joint development projects.