Prime Minister Dr. Mustafa Madbouli inspected the restoration work of Baron Empain Palace in Heliopolis. He was accompanied by the Dr. Khaled El Anani - Minister of Antiquities, Dr. Mustafa Waziri - Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and officials of the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, Eng. Emam Afify – Vice Chairman of the Arab Contractors Company and Eng. Tarek Khedr – Head of the Construction Sector.
The Minister of Antiquities stated that all the restoration work is according to the state of the art restoration methods and according to an accurate study for the different historical documents about Baron Palace to regain its previous image, and keeping upon the architecture heritage of the Palace in a timely manner, due to the high value of this building. Besides; he pointed out that the Ministry is cooperate with different organizations, institution of the civil society in the implementation of the reuse of the palace and establishing a fair which include the history of Heliopolis district along history.
During his tour of the palace, the Prime Minister listened to an explanation about the restoration work. Brigadier General Hesham Samir – Assistant of the Minister for the engineering affairs and the general supervisor of the development of the historical Cairo explored that the building is built upon 4000m2; it consists of a basement, 2 floors (ground first floor). The restoration work is according to the defined time schedule, the implementation rate reached 85% and is scheduled to be opened during the current year.
Assistant of the Minister declared that the following items were completed: the structural sustaining and restoration of the palace's ceiling works, the finishing of the facade, cleaning and restoration of its ornaments, completing the missed doors and windows, the restoration of the marble columns, wooden doors, metal ornamented windows on the main facade, the wall portray above the main entrance and the marble status. Besides, he pointed out that the work start in increasing the efficiency of the general location of the palace and landscaping works.
He added that to preserve the standards of authenticity during the restoration work of the palace, the non-archaeological iron walls that were built around the palace in 2006 were removed because of its poor condition and it is not compatible with the archaeological and architectural value of the palace. He stated that the stone wall will not be built instead of it and will use the original drawings of the palace which was executed by Eng. Alexander Marcel, in order to build walls with the same ancient archaeological designs; it is a longitudinal concrete base beneath the surface level, topped by columns of iron panes along the facades with the stone columns in a small sector distributed over distances to fix the iron panes of the walls. He emphasized that the view of the palace will not be obstructed or obscured and will be available for the passengers to enjoy the view of the palace and the magnificence of its design.
The Prime Minister gave his assignments that the works should be completed according to the time schedule with high efficiency and quality, given the high value of the palace. He stressed that the government is concerned currently with its historical and archeological buildings and the different museum as well.