The Church of Horea – A heritage for the future
Valuing an 18th century architecture monument through virtual reality
The wooden cross, painted with tempera, measuring 32 cm x 20 cm, dates back to the 20th century. The symmetrical composition on the vertical and horizontal presents a geometric decoration: triangles and squares, made of serpentine and straight lines, of different colors: yellow, red-brown, present on both sides, symmetrical.
The “felon” belongs to the category of liturgical garment, being a short, sleeveless cape, which the priest wears over the other garments, when officiating the service. It depicts the red cloak with which the Savior was clothed in Pilate’s court, but it also symbolizes God’s power, justice, and holiness.
The virtual reality system is equipped with a Valve Index VR headset and two Base Station 2.0 sensors with wireless synchronization. The virtual reality headset features dual LCD screens with a resolution of 1440×1600. They offer 50% more subpixels than OLED, resulting in higher clarity for the same rendering cost.
Because the project “Horea’s Church – a heritage for the future. Valuing an 18th century architecture monument through virtual reality” developed by the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography, in cooperation with its partners Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and the Norwegian organization NUDA AS, mentions the national hero Horea, one of the leaders of the peasant revolt from 1784, we think it appropriate to present his will, written shortly before his torture.
A decade after the finalization of the church in Cizer, Horea played one of the main roles in the development of the peasant uprising of 1784, entering, through his martyrdom, into national history. Due to this unique destiny, the documents of the time caught snippets from his life. Several epoch images of this church craftsman, who was otherwise meant to remain anonymous, are also known.
From the category of liturgical objects restored and present in the exhibition, the restoration of the wooden painted cross, with number B.9198, involved a thorough, highly specialized action successfully performed by Ioan Butnariu – expert polychrome wood restorer, within the Conservation Laboratory – restoration of MET (photo 1-2, photo 14-15 – cross before and after restoration).
The restoration and conservation of the textile pieces in the exhibition involved a complex work, both in terms of choosing the materials used (the pieces being made of heterogeneous materials: linen, cotton, hemp, wool; metal threads with textile core, metal strips), as well as the choice of intervention techniques and their application.
From the categorical diversity of cultural goods exhibited in the exhibition, we will present, firstly, the restoration of a glass icon “Mother of God with the Child”, restored by Maria Tonca – tempera painting restorer and Ioan Butnariu – polychrome wood restorer within the Museum Laboratory of conservation-restoration.
The Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography, a public institution of culture that operates under the authority of the Cluj County Council, invites you to take part on November 25, 2021, starting at 4 p.m., at the opening of the exhibition “The Church of Horea” – a heritage for the future. The exhibition is organized within the Project “The Church of Horea – a heritage for the future. Valuing an 18th century architecture monument through Virtual Reality”, financed by the EEA Grants 2014 – 2021 within the RO-CULTURE Program. It is a large project, carried out by the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania in partnership with the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and the Norwegian association NUDA AS.
The innovative exhibition illustrates the result between the interaction between digital technologies and the classic exhibition of cultural goods, the two exhibition plans combining in a new context and in an immersive perspective. The attraction point of the exhibition is represented by the transposition into VR (virtual reality) of an ethnographic, historical and architectural monument representative for the national cultural heritage, namely the church in Cizer village, built by Horea and his team of carpenters, in 1773, together with the movable patrimony goods from this church, donated to the museum by the Diocese of Vadu, Feleac and Cluj in 1966. The movable cultural goods, the tools of a carpenter and the detailed images of the church painting, to which is added a section dedicated to Horea’s personality, are combined in a relevant exhibition, which aims to describe the history of a monument and the community to which it belonged. The real exhibition is happily completed with the spectacular component made by virtual reality, with the help of which the complete scan of the church outside and inside was managed.
The exhibition can be visited between November 25, 2021 – February 28, 2022, from Wednesday to Sunday between 10 am and 6 p.m., the last entry at 5 p.m., in compliance with the special rules for the alert state caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the period, the visiting hours and the visiting rules can be modified depending on the incident normative acts.
Digitization of Heritage Objects by 3D Scanning course was held on October 21, 2021 by one of the project partners – the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca.
