2025 Poster Session

On December 11, 2016, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device inside the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Coptic Orthodox Church, commonly known as the Petrine Church, located inside the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt. The attack killed 28 people and injured dozens more.

"This church, over a century old, is adorned with numerous murals, paintings and mosaics. In an instant, some of these treasures were reduced to rubble, mingled with the blood of martyrs. This research will delve into the damages inflicted upon all the artifacts within the church as a result of the explosion. It will also explore the process of documenting and recording these damages, preserving a portion of them as a historical narrative of the event, and restoring the remaining artifacts to safeguard them for future generations.

Furthermore, this study will focus on the perspectives of various stakeholders, including church members, the local community, and conservation specialists, regarding the decision-making process. Specifically, it will examine whether the damaged historical artifacts should be fully restored to their original state or if it is more appropriate to preserve the damage as part of the artifact's or the event's historical narrative