The United States is offering a new grant, of about $380,000, to advance the conservation and restoration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Church in Causeni. US Ambassador Dereck Hogan and Culture Minister today visited the church on this occasion.

The money will help to conserve the interior frescoes and consolidate the masonry. The project is managed by the Archaeological Research Center of Moldova.

The new grant is made possible through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Conservation. So far the US has offered about $780,000 of the project’s total estimated cost of $1.6 million.

The Assumption of the Virgin Mary church is among the oldest churches in Moldova. It is the only church in Moldova that has all of its interior walls covered with frescoes. These particular frescoes are considered the only remaining example of the Byzantine-Romanian style paintings of the 18th century in the easternmost part of Europe.