The 'Alba Vernaculara' project, launched last year by the Alba County Council and the National Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia, is continuing this summer with the second edition of its Summer School, focusing on the study of thatched barns and houses in the commune of Intregalde as part of an initiative to identify, catalogue, document, map, promote and preserve the vernacular architecture of the Apuseni Mountains.

At the project's launch, its initiators described thatched barns as a defining element of the region's cultural landscape and tangible heritage, saying they help preserve local identity and can contribute to the sustainable development of rural communities.

Following the completion of the Transapuseana road - at the time Romania's largest investment in a county road - which crosses the Apuseni Mountains and links several mountain communities, traditional homesteads along the route have become accessible to visitors travelling through one of Alba County's most scenic areas. However, as development accelerates and new buildings are constructed, the area's traditional heritage is increasingly at risk of disappearing.

After the first Summer School, held in 2025 and dedicated to researching and documenting thatched barns along the Transapuseana route in Ramet, Ponor and Mogos, this year's edition is focusing on thatched barns and houses in Intregalde commune.

The programme brings together specialists in architecture and urban planning, restoration, structural engineering, interior design, history, visual anthropology, ethnology and photography, as well as students of architecture, urban planning and civil engineering.

'This year's edition focuses on researching the thatched barns and houses in Intregalde commune. It is a continuation of the concept we originally developed through the 'Alba Vernaculara' project. We started with the Transapuseana - County Road DJ 107I - then decided to continue towards County Road DJ 107K (...) and return to complete the loop,' said project coordinator Dumitrita Daniela Filip, a conservation expert at the National Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia.

She stressed that although the thatched barns and houses are not listed historic monuments, they possess extraordinary value as part of the communities' heritage and should be preserved for future generations. This year, groups of barns in Dealul Geoagiului and Iliesti will be studied by architects, structural engineers, ethnologists, historians, conservators and members of the local community.

Unlike the first edition, this year's interdisciplinary team also includes structural engineers. According to Dumitrita Daniela Filip, their expertise is essential because a thatched roof can weigh almost 10 tonnes, making structural assessments necessary before any conservation work is undertaken.

The project coordinator also highlighted the shortage of raw materials needed to restore traditional roofs. Cereals are no longer cultivated in the area, while spring wheat, which once provided the most durable straw, has virtually disappeared. As a result, experimental plots of heritage wheat varieties have been established in an effort to identify suitable materials for future restoration projects.

During last year's edition, researchers mapped 34 such buildings along the Transapuseana route and carried out detailed architectural surveys of five barns, one house and one granary. Most of the barns examined were built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

According to Dumitrita Daniela Filip, thatched barns currently face two main threats: deterioration caused by poor conservation, the loss of their original function and the absence of maintenance, and the construction of new buildings that alter the area's traditional character.

'Through this research, the National Museum of the Union has effectively complemented Alba County Council's largest road infrastructure investment - the Transapuseana. We launched this initiative out of a desire to preserve the area's vernacular architecture and cultural landscape and to turn these thatched barns into landmarks of the region, serving as reference points and tourist attractions,' Dumitrita Daniela Filip said.

Photo credit: Marinela Brumar / AGERPRES

The opening of the Summer School also featured an exhibition of architectural surveys produced during the first edition and the launch of the volume Alba Vernaculara: I. The Route of the Thatched Barns along the Transapuseana, conceived as the first stage in disseminating the research findings and as a technical resource for future conservation work and urban planning documentation. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Marinela Brumar; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)