In a temple in the supposed homeland of Jesus Christ, restorers have discovered a mosaic hidden for hundreds of years under a layer of plaster. Reported by The Daily Mail.
The discovery was made by Silvia Starinieri, an assistant restorer. She slowly swept her thermographic camera over the stuccoed wall of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and noticed an unusual bulge in one of the sites.
When Starinieri and her colleagues carefully removed the plaster of Paris, they saw a sparkling mother-of-pearl face, followed by "golden" nimbus plates. Scientists have found an angel with a height of two and a half meters - the seventh in the decoration of the church.
Since 2013, Italian restorers have been able to restore the original appearance of dozens of mosaics, including images of Jesus, St. Joseph, the Virgin Mary, 12 apostles, saints and Old Testament patriarchs. All mosaics are signed with the name of Vasily. According to scientists, their artist was commissioned during the era of the Crusades by the King of Jerusalem Amari I and the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus.
The last restoration of the church took place in 1479. Since then, the temple has fallen into disrepair, and in 2011 the Palestinian Authority called on all Christian denominations to temporarily forget about their differences and hire a team of restorers to save the church.