BETHLEHEM (AFP) – It was hidden for decades at the church on the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born until conservationists uncovered it — an ancient mosaic of an angel.
Since 2013, Italian restorationists have been working with the Palestinian government in a mammoth effort to restore the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem — hailed by most Christians as built on the site where Jesus was born.
The roof and windows have been restored and mosaics that had become barely visible over centuries have been painstakingly brought back to full color, one tiny tile at a time.
In the course of the work they were surprised to uncover an angel that had been hidden under plaster for decades.
With thermal cameras, similar to those used by the military at night, they scanned the walls to see if there was anything behind them, said Giammarco Piacenti, CEO of the Piacenti restoration company which is leading the work.
“In that part it was completely different, you could see the angel. We said ‘what is this? It can’t be an angel’,” he told AFP.
A close up shot shows details of a renovated mosaic wall inside the Church of the Nativity, renovated by Italian experts, in the biblical West Bank town of Bethlehem on July 8, 2016. (Thomas Coex/AFP)
After peeling back the plaster they uncovered the mosaic, bringing the number of angels in the church to seven.
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