The 5-7th century Odzoun church in Armenia’s northern Lori Province has been successfully renovated according to Levik Ghoughasyan, president of LevGouk Ltd., the contracting company that has worked on the church for the past fifteen years.

The structure has been internally reinforced and only cosmetic modifications have been made to the outer façade. The remaining murals were also cleaned.

“We were actually involved in healing the old monastery rather than renovating it,” says Ghoukasyan. “We tried to interfere as little as possible to the building in order to maintain its architectural and historic value.”

Ghoukasyan has renovated and repaired over twenty churches in the country.

He says that the best engineers from Armenia and experts from Milan’s Polytechnic Institute collaborated on the project that cost upwards of $800,000.