Delta arts and crafts

Loredana Pană, project coordinator

Andreea Machidon, architect coordinator

COLLABORATORS: Mihai Petrescu Puica, Raluca Munteanu, Oana Neneciu, Costel Popa

LOCATION: Romania, jud. Tulcea, Letea

The village of Letea belongs to the municipality of C.A Rosetti, in Tulcea county and is situated between the Chilia and Sulina inlets, on the Letea sandstone. About 1,000 people and 100 children live in the commune. The village of Letea has a special image in the Danube Delta, it is located in one of the most inaccessible areas, but it is also the best preserved traditional village in the Danube Delta. It has in its vicinity one of the first Nature Reserves declared in Romania, the Letea Forest (1934). Given the authentic deltaic landscape, the village is visited daily in summer by hundreds of tourists, which is why the changes in recent years are evident. Through this project we aim to create a new dimension of promoting the village's intangible cultural heritage, thus decreasing the pressure on natural ecosystems and involving as many locals as possible in sustainable tourism activities.

The Summer School for Delta Arts and Crafts is a cultural educational project with theoretical and practical applications that aims to document and promote the deltaic intangible cultural heritage. The first edition took place in 2018 and a total of three summer schools were organized. We are working with the volunteers of the Letea in UNESCO association to restore the Letea Community Center building, starting from traditional techniques. Interventions so far have involved re-roofing the reed roof and walls by wood cladding the street facades and earth bonding the interior facades. The association's building does not respect the deltaic architecture, and with this project we aimed to bring together local craftsmen and students to take local craft techniques and translate them to bring the building into a form that respects the traditional rural landscape.