The 3-days RE: viving Heritage Masterclass in Herculane Baths (Romania) offered a unique opportunity to learn restoration techniques, connect and get inspired with like-minded peers. 49 volunteers from Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia joined forces over the course of three days and participated in two different workshops that involved traditional restoration techniques on the casts of decorative elements from the facade of Neptune Baths and working with wood.
Working for the first time on Neptune Baths – a monument of national importance inscribed on the 7 Most Endangered List by Europa Nostra and EIB Institute in 2022 - the Locus Association through HerculaneProject platform contributed further into the plans of saving the monument. Two days of workshops provided the tools and an intrinsic image of what it is like to be a restorer and to work with natural materials in order to revive heritage sites. Two working stations were organized, and each volunteer took part in making a plaster piece, either an ornament part of the Neptune Baths facade or interior, or a smaller decorative piece in the molds provided by the restorers.
The carpentry workshop was also a unique way to discover how to work with wood and for our team it was the best opportunity to invite so many young volunteers to leave a mark behind, as all the wood pieces that were crafted were included in a project with community impact. Participants passed through a series of multidisciplinary training stages starting from the presentation of work tools and how they are used to their participation in all woodworking processes. Workstations were organized on various stages of the process, such as rough cutting, splitting, planning, final cutting, traditional Romanian interlocking timber construction (joints, cuts, cuts, additions), cold mounting (trial), finishing (sanding and oiling).
Our aim was to learn from one another and from the professionals invited, to exchange opinions and to find ways to preserve our common European heritage.
The programme was crafted in such a way that all 49 participants passed through all stages of the restoration of decorative elements and working with wood with manual tools.
The whole schedule was intertwined and integrated in this year’s summer school edition; a crafts workshop dedicated for architecture students which has the
purpose of reactivating abandoned public spaces throughout the spa resort through reversible interventions. This year we are reactivating and regenerating
the famous Promenade of Empress Sissi and all the wooden pieces crafted by the participants were afterwards assembled in a pavilion on the Cerna rivershore.
Each and every one of us organizes projects that aim to reactivate and preserve cultural heritage sites with the help of professionals and volunteers and for our team the best part of this exchange was to see how we can connect in a broader European space and how we can have impact in the local community of Herculane. The walks and tours we’ve had, the baths in the thermal pools nearby the river, the connection with the place through food, music and other experiences that we have had prepared emphasized how we, as Europeans, can continue to collaborate and transform our ideas into projects that change how we approach cultural heritage.