24 YEARS IN THE SERVICE OF ROMANIAN HERITAGE AND COMMUNITIES
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The main projects carried out during 2016 circled around preserving the wall paintings, especially the exterior ones. The window frames were repaired in a workshop in Băile Olănești, a village 50km away from Ursi. The iron parts have been replaced with new ones, forged at Ţibănești at the blacksmiths’ school. The windows in the church haven’t been replaced yet because the production of the iron elements was delayed.
A 15 cm stone layer was placed under the pavement to prevent the humidity from reaching the wood. The old pavement was completely replaced by a new one, made out of oak floor boards, a third of them provided by the local community.
Since the church didn’t have access to electricity, we set up an electrical installation running under the floor and a lightning rod.
The furniture is to be moved to the wood workshop in Băile Olănești for repairs and further additions. This process was left for the cold season, when it will no longer be possible to do any work on site.
Even if the original plan was to begin the restoration works on the bell tower, this was rendered impossible since wood from the scaffolding is needed for it. But the scaffolding is still used to preserve the paintings on the interior. Part of the wood from the temporary structure protecting the church was used in an emergecy intervention at the Sirineasa church ( 10 km south from Ursi).
Additionally, in May and June, we worked to arrange a house for the volunteers and the restorer who are to live in the village. This is a traditional village house and the owner allowed us to use it for the next 2-3 years as a guest house for people who work at the church. These works consist in cleaning and building a proper bathroom for the house. All this was only possible with help form the community and the materials were donated from a company specialized in sanitary ware (Delta Studio).nstruirea unei băi adecvate. Toate lucrările au fost realizate doar cu ajutorul comunității, iar materialele au fost donate de la o companie specializată în obiecte sanitare (Delta Studio).
2018 interventions covers the consolidation and marginal insurance throught removal of marginal protection of the edges made in the past years, consolidating the intonaco layer and reattachment of the intonaco layer to the wood support, consolidating the painting layer, reattachment of the painting layer that was strapped from the support, marginal protection of the edges of the painting with lime plaster, biocide treatment against xilofagous and fungus. In the naos, fragments that were extracted in the past years were prepared for the replanting to the new beams.
The Pro Patrimonio Foundation launches the international fundraising campaign to save the fresco of the wood church of Urşi, thus completing the entire process of restoration of the monument and returning it to the local community.
The wood church of the village Urşi (the parish Popeşti, Valcea county, the XVIII th century ) is a part of the project 60 wooden churches, deployed by the Pro Patrimonio Foundation. Over time, they had as partners the Europa Nostra organization, The Romanian Order of the Architects, The National Arts University, The Assosiaction 37, The Dala Foundation, The Astra Museum from Sibiu, The Romanian Peasant Museum, Artis Periţia, while the financial support was due to the international orgabnisation World Monuments Fund, Headley Trust, International Music and Art Foundation, Holcim Romania, European Investment Bank Institute.
The program of 60 wooden churches was initiated in 2009 by the architect Serban Sturdza and was carried out wuth the help of over 100 young people wit different professions (architects, restorers, engineers, sociologists, and so on), most of them volunteers, through specific and precise acts of intervention, documentation and promotion of the monitored churches. They joined the responsible effort made by the priests and the parochial communities, who inherited wooden churches, classified as historical monuments, situated in cemeteries and often abandoned. Most of them are in a severe state of structural and artistic degradation. Their use and maintenance in good shape is the duty of the community of believers, who conserve this way the tradition, history and identity of its own settlement.
Designed as sacred spaces for Christian religious assemblies and ceremonies, the old churches – built of woodwork by the village craftsmen and painted with grace- represent spirituality.
They are also exceptional cultural patrimonial objects transmitted to us as heritage and a vualuable lesson from our ancestors. The ensemble of the wooden churches in Northern Oltenia (the Gorj and Valcea counties) and in Southern Transylvania (Hunedoara and Sibiu counties) is considered as an exceptional cultural landscape, that identifies itself with the local communities.
All these rescue and restauration operations also have a social component, that seeks to reintegrate the church as a valuable patrimonial object in the life of the local community, re-opening and constantly using the building with religious, educational and cultural tourism function.
“A society that develops itself and is strong imposes itself also by rending to the heritage what it creates. A developed society will leave behind a growing heritage when compared to what it has received. In order to do this, it must also take care of the inherited heritage.” (architect Serban Sturdza, vice-president of Pro Patrimonio Fundation).
Since the beginning of the project up to now 14 emergency interventions, 10 complete wooden shingles replacements, 8 restorings were made, 50 wooden churches have been documented (through architectural relevees) and two conserving projects have been prepared with the assistance of Europa Nostra, intending to apply for financing. The high value mural painting (fresco or al secco) comprises 2000 m2 . Almost 30 churches are painted inside. Extensive emergency or conservation work have been matched by public events, fundraising concerts and exhibitions, which were designed to highlight the wooden church and to revive the interest of the communities in these patrimonial jewels.
Its restoration began on the 12 th of June 2010, a following the collapse of the vault over the altar, with an emergency intervention initiated by the Order of the Architects of Romania and Pro Patrimonio foundation in 2000. The actual time of intervention on the monument, due to the specific of the restoration activities, is four months a year, from June until September. For the rest of the time, the foundation concentrates on activities of fundraising to continue the project
The funds raised through different actions and events during 2011-2019 were used for: consolidating the paintings, unfolding the arch (the beams and the iconostasis being restored at the National arts University of Bucharest), attaining of new stone basis, replacing of the bases and of the rotten beams of the structure, restoring of the arch, of the framework and of the shindel roof, conserving the interior and exterior frescos, repairing and completing the inner furniture, vertical systematization. The money was donated exclusively by individuals, companies and private organizations: World Monuments Fund, Headley trust, Holcim Romania, International Music and Art Foundation. The local community (parish, city hall, the village residents) supports the project every year, offering accommodation and food to all the volunteers, the restorers and the craftsmen working here.
“ It was a joy (…) saving the church of Urşi. It’s a church historical monument. Similar to it, there are all our late peasant churches, a great treasure, to which something strage happens. These churches disappear first. Situated between the folk art and the great medieval art, they are considered as outside “of the great path of history”. But they are the pride of a vivid world, to which we have survived, when around us a whole world changed its looks. They will disappear first also because they are made of wood. We have to take care of them too! ” (Interview with prof. Dr. Dan Mohanu, Bucharest National University of Arts, “ As a restorer painter one must have to have faith and to be living the church life” , Formula As , no.1247/ 2016).
The wood church of Ursi needs more 12,000 euros, this being the last amount of money necessary to fully end the action of restoring the fresco, to reassemble the inner furniture and returning the monument to the community. Having the slogan Give so history can live we begin an international fundraising campaign both on the platform of crowdfunding www.dartagnans.fr and on the Pro Patrimonio Foundation website.
Your generous contribution will allow us to return a small architectural jewel to the local community, to the national patrimony and to the European culture.
Thank you!
Vă mulțumim!
One of the most difficult and taxing steps in the restoration process is reattachement of the fresco. The wall between the naos and pronaos contained beam ends protruding out of the church facade. Exposed for a long time to the elements, this wall decayed to its core. The beam, being painted on both sides, was extracted with regard to the paintings, which were carefully removed and restored, and the rotten beam was replaced by a new one. The reattachment of the paintings took place during the summer of 2019 and required a great deal of attention to reposition them according to their original outline. Four restorers and the Japanese vulunteer Yumi Nakajima worked diligently to finish this process.
We have a description of the way of working in the Urşi fresco restoration from the restorer Ana Chiricuţă
An interview granted by Mirela Duculescu for RFI presents a summary of past and new activities carried on t the small wooden church in Urşi.
As part of a series of brunches organised south of the Carpathian Mountains, My Secret Romania and My Transilvania Association arranged for another one on the 27th of July in the garden of the Restorers’ House, no.322, Urşi village
The event set out to explore the local cuisine as a means to discover the history and culture of Northern Oltenia.
16 courses prepared by the local community were thus sampled by the participants. A famous vegetarian dish from Oltenia called „umplutura” and made out of bread and potatoes, present during any family oder social gathering, was presented. Among other foods also: churned butter , whey cheese, curd, tomatoes with polenta (stewlike), loboda soup, kidney bean soup, sponge cake, plum jam cake with walnuts and others.
The first two hours were spent on gastronomy and the next two were dedicated to culture. The 30 guests of the community in Urşi took part in a demonstration of cross craftsmanship, offered by the village’s cross maker, Mr. Costel Amza, a pottery show by the potter Mihai Biscu from Horezu, and also went through a guided tour of the wooden church in Urşi.
Photo: Călin Stan
IT IS WITH GREAT PLEASURE THAT WE ANNOUNCE THE SUCCESSFUL GATHERING OF FUNDS FOR THE FRESCO OF URŞI WOODEN CHURCH!
Special thanks go to the Holcim Romania, Stoica and Co., Feeder, Cărturești Foundation and the Zeppelin magazine, as well as to the anonymous friends of the Pro Patrimonio Foundation, who replied to our fundraising and awareness campaign to salvage the church and its splendid interior and exterior frescoes.
We gathered 12.567 euro from donations on the French website DARTAGNANS, overcoming the minimum of 12.000 euro imposed. At the same time, the campaign in Romania accumulated 4.300 euro.
We put an end in this way to a decade of struggle to save both the church and its splendid interior and exterior frescoes. It was technical and at the same time human adventure of considerable importance, carried on over all these years by the Pro Patrimonio team and all our volunteers and supporters.
Ursi wooden church, small in size but great in historical and artistic consequence, would like to thank you for a second chance at life!
A big thank you to everyone who donated, big or small, to everyone who came to support this humble rural sanctuary, whose community will now be able to enjoy it again.
The church Annunciation welcomes your visit!
