Held at the funerary church of St. Vincent in Svetvinčenat on 27th and 28th November 2013, a professional workshop on wall painting conservation was organized by the Croatian Conservation Institute and the Conservation Centre of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia.
The workshop was intended for senior-year students of the Art Restoration Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, who attended headed by assistant professor Neva Pološki. Conservators Martina Kikelj Lesar, Ajda Mladenovič and Anita Klančar Kalčić from Slovenia led the workshop together with conservators from the Croatian Conservation Institute. This practical workshop was a follow-up to the Inorganic Materials in Wall Painting Conservation conference, which was held in late May this year at the Ludbreg Conservation Centre, aimed at advancing and improving the techniques of wall painting protection and conservation through the use of new technologies. The workshop was visited by the conservators of the Conservation Department in Pula, Sandra Čelić Višnjić, Marina Boico and Krstina Gergeta Sotončić.
The remarkable monument, once both an abbey and a parish church, the Church of St. Vincent dates from the 12th century and is located in the southernmost part of town, at the town cemetery. The single-nave church has three apses with three layers of wall paintings in the interior. The layer originating from the late 13th century represents the most comprehensive cycle of Romanesque frescos in Istria, Byzantine in influence, a work of master Ognobenus Trevissanus. The latest, third layer dating from late 14th and early 15th century includes two renovated paintings of the apostles and a fragmentary altarpiece on the northern wall with figures of a female saint and a donor. The frescos depict biblical scenes (the sacrifice of Abel, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Crucifixion...), the calendar (illustrations of the Labours of the Months) and scenes from the lives of saints, mostly from the life of St. Vincent.