THE EUPHRASIA CODE The Saviour-Transfiguration Church of the Sviato-Yefremsky Monastery in Polotsk is often called the pearl of East Slavic architecture. And not only because of its venerable age – the church was built in the 12th century, but also due to its unique frescoes. Specialists believe that the concept of the temple's interior decoration belongs to Euphrosyne of Polotsk; it is her message to posterity, a kind of code yet to be deciphered. The restoration of the frescoes has been entrusted to the best specialists in monumental painting of Kievan Rus' from Belarus and Russia. The correspondent of BELTA was told about the progress of the restoration and sensational discoveries by the scientific supervisor of the works, Belarusian restorer Yuri MALINOVSKY, and a top-qualified restorer, chief art historian of the interregional scientific restoration art department of the Ministry of Culture of Russia, Vladimir SARABYANOV. - About four years ago, when Russian restorers had just begun their work in the Saviour-Transfiguration Church, I must admit, I found it hard to believe that the temple frescoes, almost nine hundred years old, could be seen not fragmentarily, but in such volume as they appear now: almost two-thirds of the painting has already been restored. V. Sarabyanov: Indeed, by the end of 2006, the Belarusian restorer Vladimir Rakitsky, who worked almost single-handedly, had uncovered less than a third – 200 sq.m of frescoes. Since 2007, our team began the work, and a little later, our Belarusian colleagues from "Belrestavratsiya" joined us. The work proceeded much faster – 10-16 restorers work on the site during the season, which allows for uncovering large areas of painting. The work in the altar part has already been completed: the frescoes in the altar, prothesis, and diaconicon have been presented in their original form. The paintings in the sub-dome space are being restored. Yu. Malinovsky: In addition, restorers are preserving the 19th-century painted layers, applied during the church's renovation in the 1830s and 1880s, by transferring them onto canvas. These later frescoes, however, are no less valuable from a historical and artistic point of view. We are separating them from the medieval painting, transferring and securing them on a solid base so that as many people as possible can see them in museum exhibitions. In fact, in one temple, we are uncovering and separating three layers of painting: one from the 12th century and two from the 19th century. 40 sq.m of later frescoes have already been detached. No one in the world has carried out such large-scale detachments before.