The National Museum of the Eastern Carpathians in Sfantu Gheorghe has launched, for the first time in Romania, a project to digitise pastoral heritage through the 3D reconstruction of a traditional stana (traditional mountain shepherds' camp; plural stane) from the Vrancea Mountains.

Museum representatives said the launch date was no coincidence: 23 April, the feast of Saint George, marks in the traditional calendar the moment when 'the stane are set up' and the transhumance season officially begins.

According to tradition, the pastoral season ends on Saint Demetrius' Day, on 26 October, when 'the stane are dismantled', as the saying goes.

According to museum curator Dan Buzea, the Borta stana is a wooden structure built in the first half of the 20th century on an alpine meadow in the Vrancea area and used for decades during the summer grazing season.

Between 2022 and 2025, museum specialists carried out extensive field research, documenting, 3D scanning and relocating the stana, which is to be rebuilt within the future open-air museum in Voinesti-Covasna.

The virtual reconstruction allows detailed visualisation of original elements, from inscriptions carved by shepherds into beams to axe marks left on conifer logs.

'In the near future, the stana will be rebuilt within the open-air museum at Poiana Zanelor in Voinesti-Covasna. We already have another stana there, so this will be the second archaic structure specific to mountain sheep breeding. (...) The Borta stana was donated to us, but as it is about 60% deteriorated, it cannot be fully restored, so it will be reconstructed. Several beams have been preserved bearing the names of shepherds who stayed there in the mountains, and we have already begun documenting each name. (...) We are also working on another project, namely a mocan house that is to be donated to us and will soon enter our heritage. It is a traditional Romanian household from the Covasna area, which will complement the museum in Valea Zanelor,' Dan Buzea told AGERPRES.

Research coordinated by Dr Lucian David revealed the ingenuity of the archaic layout of the stana, consisting of two spaces separated by a 'comarnic', a pen where the animals were milked.

The first area, known as the 'fierbatoare', was the space where the fire was lit, whey was boiled and mamaliga (polenta) was prepared, with no ceiling to allow smoke to escape. The second, the 'cheese hut', was a thermally insulated room with an earth-covered ceiling and a floor made of fresh fir branches, kept constantly cool for preserving dairy products such as fresh cheese (cas) and branza in burduf (sheep's cheese matured in a sheep's stomach or bark casing).

A particularly valuable discovery is the system of numbering wooden beams with Roman numerals, showing that the stana was designed to be dismantled and periodically moved - an essential practice for the natural fertilisation of alpine pastures.

The digitisation project is part of a broader initiative by the National Museum of the Eastern Carpathians entitled 'Traditional Sheep Farming in South-Eastern Transylvania', which documents this occupation, central to the cultural identity of the Voinesti mocani (mountain shepherd communities).

As part of the same initiative, Professor Florentina Teaca has in recent years carried out valuable ethnographic research on the 'driving of sheep to the mountains' in the Voinesti-Covasna area, capturing testimonies of the last transhumant shepherds.

Among other works, Florentina Teaca has published a book on the Nedeia mocaneasca or Santilia, the oldest and most important traditional gathering of Romanians in the area, as well as the volume 'The Voinesti Mocani, Guardians of Romanian Identity in the Transylvanian Carpathian Arc', which in nearly ten chapters presents the life of 'the people in the shadow of the Dacian fortress in Valea Zanelor-Covasna', from their appearance and way of life to the customs of the stana, and their traditional foods, customs and celebrations.

'Although he had little formal education in the past, the shepherd was able to distinguish every sheep in the flock; he was a veterinarian, a meteorologist, he knew the map of the sky, was often believed to possess occult abilities, knew how to 'lock the wolf's mouth' to prevent attacks, how to dispel spells that would diminish the milk yield, understood the calendar of nature and observed Christian traditions,' Florentina Teaca writes in one of her works.

She also recalls the cheese figurines made by young shepherds as gifts for their sweethearts, the circle dances held at Santilia, and the 'trusted companions' of the mocani: sheepdogs and the ever-present staffs on which they 'carved their thoughts'.

'The shepherd's trade was inherited from father to son, with sons initially working as paid shepherds for their parents' flocks, receiving each year seven sheep, opinci (traditional leather footwear), a suman (woollen coat), a hat, two pairs of itari (traditional trousers), a sarica (sheepskin cloak) for winter and food. As they increased their flocks, they would become partners in their parents' herds, and if they proved more skilled, they would become head shepherds (baci) for other flock owners. Payment was thus made entirely in kind, encouraging young shepherds to build up their own flocks. (...) Of all their pastoral customs, the most beautiful and renowned remains Santilia. (...) Initially seen as a 'girls' fair', Santilia served multiple purposes: to spark romances, unite destinies, forge alliances and, not least, to bring together the 'boundaries' between Romanians on both sides of the mountains. (...) During the three days of Santilia, traditionally held around 2 August, coinciding with the feast of Saint Elijah (according to the Julian calendar), young shepherds would descend from the mountains, seek and choose their future brides, offer them cheese figurines, dance with them in the circle, get to know and fall in love with them, and, if all went well, ask for their hand in marriage from their parents, with weddings taking place either at the end of autumn, when the pastoral season ended, or in midwinter, between Epiphany and the start of Lent,' Florentina Teaca said. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Oana Malina Negrea; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)