Maria Berza is Vicepresident of Pro Patrimonio Romania and during the last eight years she succeeded in making the name of the Foundation more frequently heard in the field of the protection and restoration of historical monuments.

Pro Patrimonio is at its tenth anniversary. What were the toughest challenges you were confronted with during all this time?

I joined Pro Patrimonio in February 2001, when I finished working with the Ministry of Culture. I met Mr. Serban Cantacuzino, I was aware of extraordinary restoration projects that he had out in Romania since the '90s, the restoration project of the wooden churches of Maramures, which were included on the UNESCO World Heritage list, then Voronet monastery, other projects in Transylvania and in Oltenia, he already had my admiration and my full esteem. I immediately accepted his proposal. I used to be an expert and rapporteur of the Council of Europe for cultural policy for several countries in Central Europe, countries joining the EU, which they called “enlarged Europe“, the Caucasus area. In these reports and studies I was mainly in charge of heritage projects, restoration, historical centers of towns and development based on historic heritage.
It is difficult to make the transition from such large scope issues, with different financing systems, with other type of negotiation and so on. Here I would like to make a note - I am also the author of the Sibiu development project based on its remarkable historical patrimony, I have also obtained a medal in the Hanover exhibition held in 2000.

We decided to apply the regeneration map according to our abilities, in Romania. We started with volunteer education and training projects, students of architecture, students of history, whom we trained to carefully look around them, at the houses, at the groups of houses which give unity and identity to a neighborhood, to a city or to a rural settlement, to a landscape, and to pay attention to what happens to them, to ensure that they do not disappear, to think about how they could be protected and passed on, as a question of memory and cultural identity.

Pro Patrimonio seems to have invited famous names to preserve our culture.
It seemed taht many people were waiting for someone to come to talk about these things. It was a beginning full of success, since Serban Cantacuzino's name is so well known and respected in Romania. It was the opening and a guarantee of quality. We tried, through our restoration projects, to alert the local communities about properties of great cultural value, and to raise awareness among young people in schools.

What is the relationship with the local elected officials?

The connection with the municipalities tends to be complex. Therefore, the role of an organisation like ours is to show that prosperity can be accompanied by pride and by a sense of identity, can be obtained in some other way, not by sacrificing the past, but by putting it in the service of the future.

Nicolas Priboi, a talented landscaping architect, has made efforts to promote The Golescu Villa, he opened up this place to the world - he is always organising school events, with the small associations dealing with children and the development of their artistic tastes. This summer we held a children’s art contest on the lawns of the Golescu house. Campulung is a city that remained standing, albeit with the regular decay present and a sad history, as imposed by the Communists. The situation is different, however, for the Saxon villages in Transylvania. That region and Moldova are Romania’s greatest tragedy, huge amounts of work are required. Caroline Fernolend, who helped ingrain a desire for regeneration, for life, for development, which necessitated the integration of a large Roma population to a life and a past that were not theirs, and inculcated a community spirit. - that is a land and a place where no effort will be too great. What Pro Patrimonio has done is a little part of what can be done, there are many active organisations in the region. We started it off emphasising creativity, through the respect for the heritage attained through artistic education, and we have made a settlement there.

Tell me a few things about your educational projects, please.
Well, for example, the theme of the competitions organised by us for Gypsy children in several villages was to draw what they liked, we've made a small presentation of the village and what is the meaning of the fact that their Saxon houses were assigned to other people. The result was absolutely stunning, these kids drew the most beautiful things that we could have expected: church towers, houses, the clock tower, an old door, an old and complicated latch for a door. Certainly, what we are doing is but a drop in the ocean, but it is a hope-giving drop.

And other projects?
Other projects that we organised concern schools and museums, as well as restoration in itself. Now we want to start another project, the stronghold of Şiiacu, if the owners agree. The two principal restoration projects that we started are now completed, in Campulung Muscel and Viscri. We want to insert the two houses that we have restored into a scholarship program. It is a privilege to go there to write, to compose, to paint. Abroad there are castles everywhere, wings of castles, country houses, where seminars are held.

Is there anything left to be restored in Campulung?
Only details, the furniture of the house is already restored, we have worked with a furniture restaurer, we sent him the furniture pieces gradually.

What about the international echo of Pro Patrimonio actions?
We are members of Europa Nostra, and until last year I was a member of the Europa Nostra Council. It is the preferred instrument of the EU in terms of heritage issues. In the last 2-3 years we have spoken at their annual conferences about the Romanian heritage at risk, we have supplied images, failures, we have emphasised the corruption in the administration, the legislative loops that allow for sneaky interpretations of the law. I think the biggest issue is the indifference of the population, that local communities show little interest in this direction. This is the saddest thing that makes us unique in Europe.
In all these years, I have visited many countries, formerly under communist regimes, and nowhere is this heritage and identity indifference more apparent than in Romania; the most dramatic evidence is that we haven’t been able, in the last twenty years, to restore the historic centre of the capital city. This is a very serious issue for the diagnosis of our morality, of our identity, of the need for memory of a country and of a population, especially since we have access to funds for such restoration. Unfortunately we tend to see such a historic centre as a haven for the developers, that has to be demolished. It is a question of greed, but it is also a question of incompetence, and we risk losing our greatest assets.
Our third campaign revolves around the historic centre of the capital city; I have participated to countless seminars, we published a map of the historical centre of Bucharest, from which lost of pieces are missing. These are useful resources for our own awareness of our past, but I think that we are going through a very difficult period, in this regard. The new Romanian language is now the one we hear on television, the one we read in the newspapers, some important and negative changes have been imposed in our thinking, in our perception, in the image about ourselves.

What campaign is currently underway for Pro Patrimonio?
We are preparing for Rosia Montana, we have concluded the campaign that had Sinaia as a focal point, and the second volume of urgent measures to save the national heritage was finalized in July 2009. Despite the first volume’s reduced effect on the public, it was discreetly, but actively accompanied by a series of legislative initiatives, meaning that it worked. Order no 27 regarding urban planning, that regulates the issue of protected areas, is one of the results of this volume, and there is also an initiative of a group of senators to declare a temporary status of architectural monuments in all the protected architectural areas, in order to defend them from abusive demolition, until the appropriate legislation is devised. There are two houses in Bucharest, of great significance, the Mirea house, located on Kiseleff street, and the house of Visarion street, which have been bought to be demolished, in order to use the land underneath for other purposes.

How hard is it to raise funds?
We manage mainly due to the donations that come from the UK or are raised by Serban Cantacuzino himself, who travels around the country, or during the artistic tours of our friends, and with organisations to which you can apply with projects and get funding. We have recently received funding for a small project, and I am very glad for that. In May 2009, when the statue of Mircea Eliade was unveiled in the little square near the Mântuleasa church, I got an idea to do a project to save the houses in the Mântuleasa area. I presented the draft to the Mayor Ontanu from the 2nd Sector, and he supported it. Together with a student, who is currently pursuing her PhD studies in the literary works of Eliade and with a young architect whose graduation thesis focused on the Mântuleasa street, we designed the project, which was approved by the authorities. This is yet another topic of interest: how to save a city in this climate of general indifference, other than by finding small points of interest. For it is impossible to project the interests of a community on an entire city, we have to do it step by step.

Anette and Roman Schorb (up)

The German couple from Munich chose Viscri to live in, a Transylvanian village deserted by the Transylvanian Saxons after 1989. Anette and Roman settled down in Viscri for many years now, they helped build the community and now are the administrators of the Pro Patrimonio house in the village.
After the borders opened, they used to spend their holidays in Romania and in Eastern Europe. They liked what they saw and decided to move to Viscri. "The village is changed now, many houses have been reconditioned, and many tourists came. When we came to the village there were no cars“, recalls Anette. They bought a household, reconditioned the property and the annexes for two years, respecting the original spirit of the construction, then they started to organise small projects in the community. "10 years ago we all got involved, 140 women wove for the village, in one of our first projects here. Now many women obtain income from tourism or work abroad. Only 60 women still knit in this programme“, explains Anette, and then starts relating a new story, about the medical assistance in Viscri: "We also established a health care unit here. A Belgian foundation (name) is willing to help us in laying the bases of a medical system, here in the Viscri. In the village there is a women’s association, which also manages a retail shop, where we sell many things; we used this income to finance the health care unit. We also wish to finance pupils, who after secondary school do not have the possibility to go to high-school, as they must go to a boarding school, and the parents do not have enough financial means to support them. We now have six going to high-school in Făgăraş and Braşov and it makes us very happy“.
For Anette and Roman, Viscri is their home, and their aim is see the entire community revived, more and more houses reconditioned. You will surely meet them if you visit Viscri!