With great joy, we share with you, volunteers, donors, local community, craftsmen, collaborators, specialists, the news of the completion of the repair works at the Reformed Church in Roșia Montană, also marked by the reception of the works that took place on June 5, 2025. The joy is even greater as the building already hosts events for the general public!

It is a good opportunity to recall some of the technical data and also those who managed, together, to bring this endeavor to fruition. So, in short:

In 2007, the ARA Association – Architecture. Restoration. Archaeology (ARA) carried out the first documentation of the building, a detailed specialized survey of the Reformed Church in Roșia Montană (published in 2010), in the hope of finding solutions for its restoration. The church was already in a precarious state of preservation. It had been renovated in the 1970s, when large portions of the interior and exterior plasters were replaced with cement plasters. The chemical, physical and biological incompatibility of cement with historical construction materials and systems resulted in the appearance of salt efflorescence and the deterioration of the masonry. The interior floor, made of cement at that time, heavily deteriorated, had been applied over the original brick and stone floor, which was largely irreparably damaged. The church preserved its historic joinery, with the exception of the elliptical window on the first level of the tower. The exterior decorative elements showed deterioration of the material caused by the loss of cohesion of the material. The sheet metal roofing installed in the 1970s had replaced the historic shingle roofing. This constituted a significant change in the authentic architectural image of the building, characterized until then by the firm, black-and-white contrast between the whitewashed surfaces and the weathered wood.

The uncertain situation and the limited possibilities for intervention meant that only in 2019 was the Roșia Montană Reformed Parish able to initiate a complex intervention project. In 2021, however, the works stopped, but through the ARA Association, through the Adopt a House in Roșia Montană program, we supported their resumption two years later.

Thus, in 2023, interior flooring works were carried out, masonry gaps were filled, preliminary work on decorative profiles and exterior plastering, the covering of the tower with wooden shingles – carried out by shingle craftsmen from Albac, the introduction of the rainwater collection system and its channeling, the introduction of the lightning rod, etc. In 2024, the exterior finishes, the tower’s carpentry, part of the interior furniture and most of the interior finishes (plasters and whitewashes) were completed.

In 2025, together with the Roșia Montană World Heritage Association, which covered the labor costs, exterior paving works were carried out and interior finishes were completed, thus preparing the building for the first exhibition hosted here, inaugurated on 08.06.2025, the Order of the Colored Helmets Exhibition, signed by the artist Ion Barbu. 

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Financing of the works:

• Roșia Montană Reformed Parish (2019-2024 / 451,011.32 lei – 72% of the total value, representing materials, labor, design and authorization).
• ARA Association through the Adopt a House Program (2023-2025 / 152,666.02 lei – 24.37% representing materials, labor – to which is added the voluntary work of approximately 120 volunteers, as well as the design and technical assistance for the repair works offered pro-bono by the ARA Association and OPUS – architectural studio).
• Roșia Montană in World Heritage Association (2025 / 22,710 lei – 3.63% representing the labor costs for interior finishing works and exterior paving).

The funds with which the ARA Association was able to contribute to this intervention come from funding obtained for the Adopt a House Program from AFCN – the National Cultural Fund Administration, OAR – the Order of Architects of Romania, the Architecture Stamp, through the program dedicated to summer schools, from IBSB – International British School of Bucharest – through its own volunteering and fundraising program, as well as from the Costa Carras European Citizens Award obtained by the ARA Association in 2023 (Costa Carras European Citizens Award for the Safeguard of Endangered Cultural and Natural Heritage 2023), offered by Europa Nostra, the pan-European federation of heritage organizations and Elliniki Etairia.

We would like to emphasize the significant contribution of the volunteers (coordinated by arch. Virgil Apostol, Andi Jurca and Andrei Szekely, local craftsmen), because beyond the enthusiasm of each individual involvement, this contribution also translates into a reduction in the costs of the final intervention of at least 15% of the total value.

We also remind you:

• The design and technical assistance were carried out by OPUS – Architecture Studio // project manager dr. arch. Virgil Apostol, certified by the Ministry of Culture, dr. arch. Sorana Vlad, arch. Claudia Apostol, arch. Nicoleta Marian, arch. Ioana Suceava, arch. Alexandra Cioara, eng. Ștefan Geantă, eng. Beatrice Bălea.
• Survey: ARA Association, 2007, within the ARA III Summer School – arch. Virgil Apostol, arch. Ștefan Bâlici, architectural students Alin Dunăre, Mihai Gogu, Vlad Ivaneț, Ana-Maria Potoschi, published in Roșia Montană – Architectural Documents I, ARA Publishing House, 2010.

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The repair work is over, but there are still things that we hope to be able to accomplish together: from completing the restoration of special furniture pieces, such as the worship table already in the Cluj workshop of the restoration specialists from BBU Restore, the pulpit that we plan to complete with volunteers this summer, to the exterior landscaping of the Church courtyard.

You can contribute by making a donation to the account of the ARA Association – Architecture. Restoration. Archaeology, the initiator of the Adopt a House program in Roșia Montană: RO37RNCB0484159217100001 / CUI 18876357 / Swift: RNCBROBUXXX / RNCBROBU

Thank you!

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We thank the Roșia Montană Reformed Parish and its representatives, priest Péter Sándor Ladányi and Mr. Lóránd Kopenetz, first curator, for their trust and collaboration, as well as all the funders and partners, collaborators, craftsmen and volunteers who remain the soul of this program and make such achievements possible.

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🥳 🥳 We conclude by resuming the invitation to cross the threshold of the Reformed Church in Roșia Montană this summer to see the Exhibition of the Order of Colored Helmets by artist Ion Barbu, an extraordinary example that illustrates in an exceptional artistic manner how objects loaded with meanings, mining helmets in this case, can be re-interpreted and come back to life thanks to the care and creativity of those who watch over this heritage – a project initiated by the Roșia Montană in World Heritage Association, through the Interpreted Roșia Montană project, co-financed by AFCN – the Administration of the National Cultural Fund, carried out in partnership with NIH – the National Institute of Heritage, the Roșia Montană Cultural Landscape Association, and ARA Association – through the Adopt a House in Roșia Montană program.

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