Sfiștofca connecting people

The village of Sfiștofca, located at the eastern extremity of the European Union, has a story that deserves to be known and preserved. A. Rosetti, to which the village belongs, is in a way the small-scale projection of a model of interethnic coexistence, where Romanians, Ukrainians and Lipovans have been living in harmony for more than two centuries. C. A. Rosetti, Letea, Periprava, Sfiștofca and Cardon are villages in which the communities have managed to develop individually, but maintaining good neighborly relations throughout history, perhaps also favored by a certain facet of isolation that today is quantified socio-economically by its location in an exceptional context: in the northeast of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve (DBRD). It should also be added that the reserve overlaps with the natural sub-region of the Maritime Delta, is below sea level, and the banks are complex formations of the seabed.
Sfiștofca is the (still) living memory of a culture that has followed its destiny and will disappear without active but non-invasive support. The 20-30 inhabitants who still live in the village today still keep the light of the stained-glass window burning, among other traditional houses which, abandoned, are deteriorating year by year, casting a veil of nostalgia and sadness over the village.

About Sfiștofca in 1913
In a few minutes we are in Sfiștofca.
The same road, the same dust, the same dust, the same noises have all contributed to make it feel good to have arrived so soon.
Sfiștofca was founded in the last century, by the Lipovans who fled from Vilcov. It was also called the "nest of the cold". During the Crimean War, the Franco-Sardinian-Turkish division suffered a lot from the cold. (M. D. Ionescu, op. c.)
The elders of the village, with whom we talked, say about the origin of their village, that it was founded at the time when Izipol was born, son of the Sultan who ruled over these places. The name of the village was originally lzipol.
The inhabitants of the village did not like this name, and since the children of the village had made some flutes and whistled in one, the village was given the name of Shfshtofca from the Russian sfistun, which means "whistle".
The first impression on entering the village is that the inhabitants are materially well off. The streets are regular, wide, clean, and with many plantations on the edges. All the streets have Romanian names. I have noted in passing: Principele Ferdinand, Mihai Bravul, Eminescu, Cogîlniceanu, etc.
There are two Lipovenetian churches in the village. One was built in 1889 and the other in 1893. They were built by the inhabitants from the income of the fish, which was theirs at the beginning of the Romanian domination. The construction of the church in the middle of the village, which we visited, is built of wood and reed on a stone foundation. It is a very imposing church.
We visited several houses. Large houses, spacious rooms, all painted white. Each house has a little icon fixed in the eaves under the eaves. Inside, all the walls are adorned with household items, fabrics and embroidery and lots of paintings. The women and children don't really know Romanian.
There's a well in every courtyard. But the water is good only for chickens and cattle. The whole village gets drinking water from a well outside the village.
The schools are generally good. Especially good at Mr. Mantu in cl. I and II and Mrs. Aneta Petrescu in the kindergarten. I say well, because it is a real art and it is a titanic labor to be able to teach to speak Romanian to these children, who have never heard this language in their home.
Because of the isolation, the teachers here have a very hard time.
The main occupation of the inhabitants is fishing and cattle breeding. The village is on the edge of the sea, near the Russian border. Most of them fish in the sea.
These three villages supply the Sulina market with milk, butter, cheese, eggs, eggs, poultry and other products of their own.
The inhabitants of this village ask to be annexed to the commune of C. A. Rosetti. Today they belong to the commune of Periprava, 30 kilometers away.
The prefect promised to fulfill their just request. In the future there will be a single town hall in C. A. Rosetti, to which these two villages, Șfiștofca and Periprava, will be annexed in addition to the village of Letea, thus abolishing the town hall of Periprava and making a single commune of all these 4 villages.
The inhabitants remained satisfied and we spent ourselves up outside the village. On the way home, at the Gherassi hermitage, we were met by a group of friends from Sulina, with a table spread out, with whom we spent a few happy hours.
For the inhabitants of the Delta, the inspection of the prefect Petru Sfetescu, will remain a historic date. It is a significant event for a county prefect to find the time to visit these forgotten corners, neglected by all those who had a duty to take an interest in them.

I have endeavored to give as conscientiously as possible what I have seen, and I apologize to the readers if my powers have not helped me enough.
I add here the statistical table which I promised in the preceding article. Some data are missing. While they were being collected, mobilization was decreed and we all ran to do our duty to the country.
Extract from the article "Mr. Petru Th. Sfetescu in the villages of the Delta" published on July 31, 1913 in "Conservatorul Tulcei"

What is valuable in Sfiștofca?

The rural landscape, the tradition materialized in the built space, the monumental 19th century church in the centre of the village, with its silhouette visible from several kilometres away, the main street impressive by its width and generous expanse, now covered by vegetation, the households and their organization, the houses and their construction details using traditional natural materials, the ingenious heating system, the decorations and their symbolic value, all these are perfectly integrated into the horizontal deltaic landscape.
The village, like the whole area, is characterized by pronounced isolation with little access to basic services; water transport is the only option to travel to and from the village.
Sfișștofca is one of the few villages in the Danube Delta where no aggressive, pollution-generating, construction interventions are (yet) visible, affecting the scale of the traditional architectural typology. It is one of the places where vernacular houses still exist as they were built 100 or 200 years ago. The rhythm of the decorated gables of reed-covered houses still represents the specific resonance of the Lipov Slovene village.
Why is the village disappearing?
But the massive depopulation of the last 30 years has led to the abandonment of households and their constant degradation, most of them to the point of self-demolition, and they are now in a state of collapse. As a testament to vanished lives, in the place of the houses that fall down every year, a rise of earth at ground level remains as a discreet sign of the footprint of a former dwelling.
In all this process, in fact, there is a natural, natural, ecological cycle of recycling the natural materials from which the houses were built.
Isolation, lack of mobility (there is no local transportation and the roads are unpaved), lack of a village shop, drinking water available only at one end of the village, and other normal services and utilities that are lacking in the village, lead to abandonment. Lack of economic opportunities and salty soil are other reasons why the village is abandoned.

Șfișștofca:
Population: 821
Romanians: 11
Lipovenes: 804
Greeks: 6
Occupation: Fishing and cattle economy
No mixed schools: 1
Enrolled: 103
Attended: 86
No kindergartens: 1
Enrolled: 40
Attended: 30
Number of teachers: 3
No. of churches: 1
Lipovenetian churches: 1
No animals: 735
Remarks: Town hall in Periprava

Are there chances of rescue?

Yes, there might be! Not in the sense of activating the community life of 50-100 years ago, when the village functioned as an autonomous body with over 1,000 inhabitants. This process is probably not possible today. But there is a possibility to save the valuable built stock by halting the rapid deterioration of at least some of the existing dwellings. Some good practice examples of restorations, extensions and conversions for spaces needed today (bathrooms, accommodation, etc.) could provide a minimum critical mass to turn the balance and regenerate other households. Obviously, the meaning of these spaces could be precisely the specificity of the area which would attract people looking for what they can only find here: peace, isolation, connection with nature and the delta landscape, the experience of a simple, natural life.

Educational challenges, projects and universities

In the idea of saving this village as a testimony of a picturesque and specific delta lifestyle, one pillar is to keep the village in the socio-cultural attention. Thus, educational activities have been carried out over the years on the theme of finding economic, cultural, practical solutions for the future of the community. Educational projects, including university partnerships, are not necessarily an answer to the challenges mentioned above, but it is an example of good practice in which education approaches the urgent need to save rural communities with disappearing vernacular heritage.
The first activities of this type were organized together with the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien), the National University of the Arts (UNARTE) and the "Sfiștofca Art Association" Foundation. From the very beginning, the themes were very diverse and interdisciplinary in approach, adapted to the place, but also to different age and social groups (children, locals, teachers, students of different years, master students, etc.) Reinterpretation of local crafts, spaces built of wood and reed in Sfiștofca and Letea, memorial spaces in Periprava, projects with applicability for local communities, surveys and proposals for the rehabilitation of traditional dwellings were some of the initial themes.
The Viennese master students prepared several project ideas for possible access to European funds (business ideas in the agricultural area, beekeeping, festivals, ways to filter drinking water for the community, etc.) materialized in a publication of over 300 pages, also made available to the city hall.

VVITA - an international educational project applied to fishing villages in areas at the extremes of Europe. Workshop in Letea and Sfiștofca

Inspired by previous workshops, the initiators of the project thought that the problems of the fishing communities in the Danube Delta could be similar to those of other fishing communities in Europe. This was followed by an exchange of ideas with colleagues from universities with whom we had similar concerns, and this is how the university project VVITA - Modernizing Learning and Teaching for Architecture through Smart and Long-lasting Partnerships leading to sustainable and inclusive development strategies to Vitalize heritage Villages through Innovative, Erasmus strategic partnership with the Universities of Catania (UNICT) and Trondheim (NTNU), was born, with the UAUIM team being the project coordinator.
The first part of the experience in the Delta was the meeting of the VVITA team with more than 40 teachers, students and guests, at Tulcea County Council, with most of the entities politically, administratively, scientifically or institutionally involved in the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve.
The day was followed by the first direct experience of the Delta, coordinated with the help of "Ivan Patzaichin - Mila 23" association, under the guidance of architect Teodor Frolu. The concepts of "Low" and "Slow Tourism" were presented together with the experimentation of mobility on the canals of the Delta.
Then, in Letea and Sfiștofca, in the commune of C. A. Rosetti, field work was carried out, with the actual workshow: house surveying, surveying at the school in Sfiștofca and proposals for conversions realized in international teams of five students. At the end, each team presented their project and how it would be adapted to the proposed new function. One of the best practical lessons was the in-situ analysis of abandoned houses, where the original construction details remained visible.
Local craftsmen showed them techniques for using reed to cover houses and, together with the students, they built a reed shelter on the pontoon at Letea.
Reed, an ecologically and economically very important resource, is also a traditional roofing material, providing an aesthetic and energy-efficient covering for houses in the Delta villages.
The exercise highlighted the existence of an important cultural heritage of traditional craftsmanship in the ethnically diverse communities of the Delta, including particular skills that are in danger of disappearing in the context of depopulation.

Useful results for the community

The fishing communities in which the workshops took place were involved in the project in several ways: the accommodation and meals, provided at the local people's homes in the case of the Danube Delta, led to a closer and direct understanding of the community's way of life. The understanding through direct dialog of the students' way of life, sources of subsistence, daily life and the traditional way of building and running a household led to the proposed architectural solutions offering possibilities for the conversion of their own households, adapted to contemporary opportunities and in particular to rural tourism.