The Neva Foundation is pleased to be involved in the project of great cultural importance Pro Russica aimed at restoring Russian literary works severely damaged by a devastating fire at the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany in 2004.

The Weimar library, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most beautiful libraries in Europe, owes its reputation to its renowned directors, especially Goethe who was the most famous one. The collection comprises about 1 million volumes and manuscripts of great value which are consulted and often rented by readers and researchers.

The fire destroyed a large part of the literary works and some 62,000 books were badly damaged by water and smoke from the fire.

The Pro Russica project was created by Dölle Kultur in order to restore books by Russian authors as well as books printed in Russia or in the Russian language.

Among those books, a private collection of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, daughter of Paul I of Russia and an enthusiastic patron of art and literature.

The goal is to save and make available to the public the litarary legacy of Russian tsars. That is why the Neva Foundation supports the restoration of some 400 Russica volumes and 300 so-called "ash books".

The Pro Russica project took as a model Pro Helvetica in Weimar project which aims at restoring volumes and editions of Swiss origin since 2008. A working group of three renowned Swiss restoration workshops has been exclusively commissioned to do the work.

The restoration of the the Russian literary legacy of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library is of great importance to the Neva Foundation which wishes to contribute to the efforts aimed at the restoration of these editions of great value so that they retrieve their original looks and continue the testimony of the great Russian history.

For further information please visit our partners' websites:

Dölle Kultur: www.doelle-kultur.ch
Duchess Anna Amalia Library: http://www.klassik-stiftung.de/index.php?id=312
Pro Russica at Michael Rothe workshop: http://www.atelier-rothe.ch/PDFs/Pro_Russica_in_Weimar.pdf


Partner:Pro Russica in Weimar