C1PA 2005 XX International Symposium. 26 September - 01 October. 2005. Torino. Italy 
PROJECT OF THE RESTORATION OF DRETEA CHURCH, XVII th C 
O. Ciocsan a , S. Ciocsan\ F. Rogneanu c , D. Bogdea 0 , V. Iasinschi c 
3 S.C. CONS - ART S.R.L. Arh.Dan Nicolae St. nb. 28 B, Craiova, ROMANIA — ociocsan@yahoo.com 
h University “Andrei Saguna” - Bd-ul. Mitropoliei, 20, 550179, Sibiu, ROMANIA - silviuteo2002@yahoo.com 
c The Art Museum of Craiova, Calea Unirii 15, 200419, Craiova, ROMANIA - dbogdea@yahoo.com 
KEY WORDS: Conservation, Cultural Tourism, Monitoring, Restoration 
ABSTRACT 
S .C. CONS - ART S.R.L. Craiova, ROMANIA, is a private firm, founded in 1991. The main object of activity is the restoration of 
the mobile and immobile cultural patrimony in Romania. The firm’s restorers, acknowledged by The Romanian Ministry of Culture, 
realized more than 90 Restoration and Emergency Interventions Projects, on XVIIth - XIXth C. churches and on some civil 
monuments. 
For the ASTRA Museum, Sibiu, one of the most important ethnographical museums in Europe, we conceived a project for the 
relocation of The Dretea Church, Cluj County, to the Sibiu Museum. Because the local community build another church, the wooden 
one was neglected. So, it was imperative to save this beautiful monument. The solution was to move it from its location to the 
premises of The Astra Museum, Sibiu, Romania. We have sketched a project of restoration. After a careful surveillance, for a period 
of time, were drawn all the documents necessary for the moving of the church at the Astra Museum, Sibiu (upsweeps, drawings, 
chemical and biological analyses). 
The next step was the strengthening of the painting coat in order to facilitate the dismantling of each element from the structure of the 
church. Then each piece was dismantled, and the structures were protected. Each stage has a photo and video documentation. 
Next the church will be integrated in the circuit of the Astra Museum, Sibiu. The next stage is the beginning of the restoration of the 
painting. 
Romania has an exceptional patrimony of wooden churches (cca. 1200), dated XVIIth - XIXthC., and 15 of these are on the list of 
monuments, belonging to the world’s cultural patrimony, that are protected by UNESCO. 
Through our work we think that we can have an important contribution to save the world’s cultural patrimony. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
On the outskirts of the Dretea village, Manastireni commune, 
Cluj County, you can found the wooden church “ The Descent 
of the Holy Spirit” (Coborarea Sfantului Duh), that dates back 
to the second half of the XVIIth Century, being erected in 1672. 
The plan of the church is rectangular, for the narthex and nave, 
and polygonal for the apse. The tower has the shape of a prism, 
formed from four oak pillars that were fixed on the transversal 
beams of the nathex, is one of the elements characteristic for the 
wooden churches at the end of the XVIIth and the beginning of 
the XVIIIth Centuries. 
2. PREVIOUS INTERVENTIONS 
In time the monument suffered a series of changes, the oldest 
one being made in the period 1860-1870, when the porch was 
included in nave and narthex in order to enlarge the interior 
space destined for the faithful people. 
Besides the above-mentioned changes, the church suffered a 
series of other alterations, which can’t be fixed in time but 
which are obvious today. Thus, in the altar, on the North and 
East walls, there were made two openings, for small windows, 
affecting the interior painting. On the North and South walls, of 
the narthex and nave, five openings, also for windows, were cut, 
affecting again the original painting. The West wall of the nave 
(the East wall of the narthex) was also cut, the opening having 
1,10 m height, in order to allow women to assist at the service. 
Another intervention sectioned a part of the painting on the 
vault of the nave and the North and South walls. The floor from 
the nave, narthex and altar is made of wood, being recently put 
in place. The church has now a thin iron plated’ roof and some 
of the beams were recently replaced. The church was super 
elevated, being put on a concrete belt. 
3. THE CONSERVATION STATUS OF THE 
MONUMENT AND ITS INTERIOR PAINTING 
The support of the interior painting is the oak wood, for the 
beams that form the walls, and the fir tree wood, for the vaults, 
and hemp canvas for the interstitial spaces. 
The biological analyses made proved that the wooden support 
doesn’t show traces of biodegradation, although a weak attack 
of insects was observed on the iconostasis panel. This attack 
didn’t affect the mechanical resistance of the wooden support of 
the painting coat. The fir tree wood wasn’t affected by 
biodegradation, too. 
The chemical and stratigraphical investigations showed, once 
again, the use of the hemp canvas, as a completion of the 
wooden support, in the interstitial spaces created between the 
wooden beams. The priming that fixed them on the designed 
place has a thickness that varies between 320 and 400 um and 
was made of a homogeneous mixture of plaster and animal glue. 
The mixture contains a small quantity of impurities, especially 
silicates. The priming is disposed along the fiber of the wood, 
thus there are no differences of level. On the surface of the 
priming there can be observed an isolating stratum of protean 
nature and starch. Two are the major causes that contributed to 
the degradation of the interior painting and the loss of big 
painted surfaces: the infiltration of water and even the direct 
contact of the painted surface with rainwater, because of the 
human interventions in time. 
The infiltration of water reached the painting coat and caused its 
detachment from the priming, and influenced the stains 
produced by dirt and smoke and caused the detachment of the 
plaster priming, too. 
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