The
\nrestauration of this small church in Valcea county, southern Romania, which
\nstarted in 2009 and was completed in 2020 thanks to the funds obtained through
\ndonations and the volunteer work of numerous students, architects and
\nprofessional painting conservators, has become not only a model to imitate but
\nalso a way to learn how they used to build things at that time. According to
\narchitect Raluca Munteanu, who got involved with the restoration works, the
\nchurch, which was dedicated to the Annunciation and the Archangel Michael, was
\nbuilt between 1757-1784.<\/p>\n
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Raluca Munteanu: The church we see today isn’t likely to be
\nthe church that was built first, as we ‘ve learnt that it survived a
\ndevastating fire in 1883 and subsequently underwent a series of restauration
\nworks. An 1843 inscription placed at its entrance mentions founder Nicolae
\nMilcoveanu who did the restauration works and the church’s extremely valuable
\nwall paintings date back to the same year. Nicolae Milcoveanu wasn’t a boyar, but a
\nwealthy local who got actively involved in the community life like they used to
\nback then. He repaired the church and gave it back to the community. <\/p>\n
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However,
\nthe woodcarvers, those who actually built the church, remained anonymous until
\nnowadays, though the painters were mentioned, Gheorghe, Nicolaie and Ioan.
\nGheorghe was seemingly one of the locals, as architect Raluca Munteanu
\nbelieves.<\/p>\n
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Raluca Munteanu: They could have been locals who got their
\ninspiration from the monasteries in the area, mainly from the Hurezi monastery,
\nwhich served, as one can easily notice, as model for the other churches in the
\narea. However, documents are pretty scare in the area and it is possible that
\nthe names of the builders had been known to the locals, but as they didn’t have
\nthe routine of documenting events, their names remain unknown to us. A strange
\nthing though is that we know the names of the painters… In the case of these
\nvillage churches, few names of their builders are known. We only know they were
\nwell-trained professionals and went from one place to the other to build
\nchurches in the neighborhood. An expert painter can nowadays identify the way
\nin which local style was passed down from generation to generation.<\/p>\n
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The
\ndimensions of this church are also illustrative for the village community but
\nalso for the wood exploitation capabilities of the region. The small church in
\nUrsi is almost 8 meters long, 6 meters wide and maybe measures 2 meters and 40
\ncentimeters from the floor up to its ceiling. With its roof, the church’s total
\nheight stands at 4 meters and 50 centimeters, says Raluca Munteanu adding that its
\narchitecture doesn’t belong to any particular style. <\/p>\n
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Raluca Munteanu: This is a vernacular church built as
\npragmatically as they possibly could at that time. It is a simple construction
\nmade with the materials they abundantly had at that time, like wood, for
\ninstance. This type of dovetail joints can be found all over Europe as it was
\nthe easiest and cheapest way to build something. At the same time, wood was
\nalso cheap and easy to come by in these mountainous areas. The church was
\nfunctional and adjusted to meet the requirements of the religious services of
\nthe Orthodox Church and it doesn’t have anything special as compared to the
\nother wooden churches in the region. It complies with the requirements of the
\nOrthodox religion and the pattern of its buildings, both in terms of interior
\ncompartmentalization and functionality. Like I said its decorations were
\ninfluenced by the paintings of the Hurezi monastery and are organized in keeping
\nwith the Orthodox rituals. What is special, not only for this region but for a
\nlarger area is the builders’ decision to adorn the church with wooden frescoes
\nas these two techniques, the frescoes and the wooden paintings are known to be
\nincompatible. Painters here employed a technique used at wall-painted
\nmonasteries, also known as fresco painting, which is executed upon freshly laid
\nlime plaster and is different from secco painting techniques, which are applied
\nto dried plaster.<\/p>\n
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The church’s frail mural painting and its
\npremises have been completely refurbished and given back to the parishioners
\nconcurrently with another concrete church recently built in the village. <\/p>\n
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(bill)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Commission in autumn announced the winners of the European Heritage Awards also known as Europa Nostra Awards. The project on the restauration of the wooden church in the Ursi village was among the first four recipients of the grand prix and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":169956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[36759,45679,44308,45074,45678],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-church","tag-hurezi","tag-monastery","tag-restoration","tag-ursi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n