From November 25 to 27, 2022, participants of the practical program of the Heritage Volunteer School, together with professional restorers, carried out work on the improvement and preservation of the cultural heritage object – the Agnaev Watchtower. The monument is an element of the fortification system of the ancient stone city of Dagom, located in the Alagirsky district of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania.
The Heritage Volunteer School is the flagship project of the Cultural Volunteers program, aimed at preserving cultural heritage sites. The Cultural Volunteers program has been successfully implemented since 2019, its organizers are the Ministry of Culture of Russia and the Center for Cultural Strategies and Project Management (Roskultproekt). The School-2022 program started in September and was successfully held in the Kostroma, Leningrad, Oryol, Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kaluga, Kaliningrad regions of Russia.
In the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, the efforts of volunteers were aimed at restoring the historical appearance of the Agnaev Watchtower – part of the architectural ensemble of the village of Dagom, which is considered one of the oldest in the region. Dagom is located on the right bank of the Ardon River in the Alagir Gorge. This village is attributed one of the central meanings in the judicial system of medieval Ossetia, as a place where blood relatives were reconciled and courts were held.
Over the long centuries of its existence, the historical place gradually declined and was destroyed, not only by time, but also by people. Recently, stone blocks were broken out of the old walls and a house began to be built from them. The barbaric construction was stopped, but the damage caused to the cultural heritage object turned out to be significant. One of the main goals of the practical expedition conducted in Dagom as part of the School is to return the historical appearance of the ancient stone city.
"On behalf of our entire team, I want to say a big thank you for the opportunity to participate in such projects. It is very important for us to preserve the historical part of the Republic. Thanks to the School of Heritage Volunteers, we have gathered like—minded people who have made a worthy contribution to the preservation and restoration of the territory of the cultural monument," Zaurbek Tsallagov, Chairman of the North Ossetian regional public cultural and Educational organization "Ancestral Towers", coordinator of the project "School of Heritage Volunteers" in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania summed up the event.
