The International Organ Music Festival will take place under the new roof of St. Sophia Cathedral

October 24, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The XVII International Organ Music Festival "Zvyany Safii" will be held under a new roof. The restoration of the roof of St. Sophia Cathedral, where the festival concerts will take place, which was destroyed by a strong wind, will be completed by its opening on October 28. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the Deputy Chairman of the Polotsk City Executive Committee, head of the emergency response headquarters, Alexander Mikhalievich. Despite the fact that the storm that swept over Polotsk on October 6 tore off about 300 sq. m of roofing, specialists concluded that the entire roof needed to be replaced - more than 600 sq. m of roofing. The rafter and drainage systems, and the lathing also required restoration. Polotsk construction trust No. 22 became the general contractor for the work. Builders from Vitebsk arrived to help their colleagues. A total of 17 to 25 specialists worked at the site. Currently, the craftsmen have less than 100 sq. m of roofing left to lay. 10 workers are handling this job. "By the beginning of the festival concerts, all work will be completed in full," Alexander Mikhalievich assured. The festival will open with a concert featuring Honored Artist of Belarus Ksenia Pogorelaya (organ), Galina Pavlenok - mezzo-soprano, and the chamber choir of the Gomel Regional Philharmonic. The festival participants will also include Martin Rabensteiner from Switzerland, Luca Massaglia from Italy, Natalia Letyuk from Ukraine, Evgeny and Ksenia Avramenko from Russia, and Marek Toporowski from Poland - his concert will close the festival on December 2. St. Sophia Cathedral, as a museum of architectural history and a concert hall, is part of the National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve. It is an architectural monument of the mid-11th to mid-18th centuries. The museum has been open to visitors since 1987. The museum exhibits tell about the architectural history of the oldest stone building in modern Belarus, about numerous reconstructions, repairs, and the last restoration of the monument. In St. Sophia Cathedral, you can see fragments of masonry from the 11th century, an almost completely preserved ancient foundation, as well as fresco paintings from the late 11th century, which are among the oldest in Belarus. The concert hall in St. Sophia Cathedral has been operating since 1983. The International Festival of Ancient and Modern Chamber Music and the International Festival of Organ Music "Zvyany Safii" are held here annually. -0-