The amazing wooden churches from Northern Romania - learning from the past, restoring for the future, preserving the present valuable heritage of forgotten wood building tradition

IRG/WP 09-10683

R Craciun, R Möller

The beauty and the uniqueness of the north-western region of Romania called “Maramureş” are well known in Europe. Surrounded by mountains, the region remained to some extend isolated from modern influences, preserving the local village architecture and craftsman traditions learnt and passed on from generation to generation. Local folklore and past heritage sets you back centuries ago when the manual work and wood in particular was the only way to build. Wood construction with specific architecture has developed in this region. Houses and churches were erected in a way in which even today some of these building are still standing and integrate nicely with the landscape. As always good time and bad time are cycles in the human history and time have its impact on the any wooden construction. Restoring and preserving these unique wooden churches from Maramureş is not only a necessity for the local people but an honour and duty in order to preserve their heritage and traditions. In this study, a biological evaluation of the aged and destroyed wood from an historical wooden church from Maramureş, Romania, recently restored, is being investigated and discussed. The aged oak material used in the initial construction is compared with today’s oak wood material available on the market. The option of using VPT treated wood as a material of choice for restoring these monuments are being suggested and eventually considered as a recommendation. The knowledge, the talent and the traditional craftsman type of work used in building these churches are slowly disappearing and somehow needs to be preserved by maintaining this knowledge through restoration work. The question which remains to be answered is whether this material will last centuries like the original one used for construction?


Keywords: wooden historic artefacts, wooden churches, Maramureş, Romania

Conference: 09-05-24/28 Beijing, China


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