"Patrimonializing" the kiln

Workshop within the Bucium Summer University 2021 safeguarding rural heritage through education, 9th edition

Concept and realization: RPER Association

Workshop coordinators: Mihaela Lazăr, Codina Dușoiu

The content of the panels is based on the results of the UDV Bucium 2021 trainees

under the coordination of:

President RPER-France: Ștefana Bianu

President of RPER - Romania: Ioana Bogdan-Cătăniciu

second coordinator: Mihaela Lazăr

COLLABORATORS:

UDV Bucium guides: Dragoș Băbeanu, Cristina Bolog, Codina Dușoiu,

Mihaela Lazăr, Octavian Mănoiu, Iozefina Postăvaru

The drawings have been realized on the basis of the relief and with the help of the students:

Alexandra Aluchi, Alina Anton, Ana Nicola Bocănici, Silviu Cosmin Chesnoiu,

Ioana Bianca Condruz, Bianca Floarea, Monica Ilinca, Cristian Mircea,

Alexandru Petrescu, Tamara Albertina Popescu, Anca Tudor

The photos were taken by trainees and tutors of UdV Bucium and Horia Gligor

LOCATION: Romania, jud. Alba, Bucium, village Valea Negrilesei

"The most beautiful stories unfold at the mouth of the oven, waiting for the bread to bake slowly. When I was a child, I couldn't wait for the day when bread was baked in the oven. I used to wake up in the morning to watch Treji making the dough, Grandpa lighting the fire and Grandma placing big round pieces of dough on the paltin leaves, then shoveling them onto the shovel and pushing them into the hot oven. As soon as she closed the oven door, a fine smell of warm dough delighted our senses and we would start asking, "When is it ready?", "When can we eat?". Grandma smiled. Every time she made pupuți, little loaves of bread, sort of buns, for the children. (...)."

Horia Mihai Gligor, owner

In an earlier phase in the evolution of traditional houses in the area, the heating system was the open hearth, where food was also prepared, also known as the "camniță". Since the first part of the 20th century, the hearth and the chimney have been removed from the tindă and replaced by the metal heating stove. Thus the stove was moved outside the house, into a smaller building made of beams or wicker and used as a summer kitchen. Here, a stone plinth was built on which the bread oven was placed. A spherical cap made of brick or stone (collected locally and built in one or more courses with a mortar of clay mixed with lime) was built over the pedestal to form the oven's table. It was usually plastered with clay and painted white with lime. Identified during the Bucium Summer Universities, we considered that they could be a possible subject of interest for the locals and for local tourism, but also for an architectural research related to traditional building techniques and a particular construction system.

Architecture and Tourism students, tutors and locals

The project aimed at reviving a local culinary custom, saving from extinction a specific architectural element of the houses in the area - the oven, as well as promoting this custom for tourism through a bread baking and cooking event, as a related event of the Bucium Summer University 2021 realized in partnership with OAR Alba, co-financed by OAR National.

The workshop activities took place on three levels: cultural, firstly, social, secondly, and thirdly, but particularly important, educational. The main aim of the workshop was the valorization and promotion of cultural and material values that can be associated with the Bucium area in terms of tourism. The activities of the workshop also stimulated the social side, through the event of using the restored oven, which was also a reason for social cohesion and celebration of local traditions. Last but not least, the educational approach aimed to accumulate information through the direct experience of the architecture and tourism students: expeditions to the municipality to identify and inventory existing ovens, practical learning of a construction system and traditional local building techniques, thus contributing to the continuation and preservation of Romanian traditions and identity.

Many thanks to the organizers of the Summer School, the RPER Association - Rencontres du Patrimoine Europe Roumanie, Professor Mihaela Bălan, the participating students, the craftsman Dionisie Bolunduțu, Viorica Laslău! Together you have brought back to life a significant part of my childhood: the wood-burning oven in my grandparents' backyard and the unique taste of freshly baked bread! Now the stories at the mouth of the oven have a new life.

It's been many years since I've smelled baked bread and listened to stories from the oven. On Saturday, August 7, 2021, the backyard of Grandma and Grandpa's house was filled with people and the fire was once again lit in the oven. Mrs. Viorica's dexterous hands kneaded the dough and placed it on the paltin leaves, just as grandmother used to do, long ago. Just like us as children, lots of people from far away waited eagerly to taste the bread. And they were delighted!