More than 100 people, professionals from the heritage and culture sectors, and the general public, participated in the local award ceremony for the SAXON CHURCH IN ALMA VII project.
Designated in May as the winner in the “Conservation and adaptive reuse” category, the restoration project brought home two more recognitions: the Grand Prix and the Public Choice Award. It is the first time in the history of Europa Nostra, since the organization’s foundation 61 years ago, that a project has won three awards.
The festive event took place on the 10th of October in Alma Vii, Moşna commune, Sibiu County. The project was presented to the audience by Michaela Türk, Director for Implementation and Development of projects in the Mihai Eminescu Trust Foundation. The Mayor of Moşna commune, Dumitru-Gabriel Nuţu, spoke at the opening about the importance of the project for the community of Alma Vii and beyond.
Elena Dimitrova, representative of Europa Nostra, and member of the evaluation jury in the “Conservation and adaptive reuse” category, highlighted the importance of cultural heritage: “Why do we care about cultural heritage? We care about cultural heritage because it is about the future of our children. It is about what we call quality of life, but then we have to define what quality of life we want, and it is about the opportunity, the chance we should have to self-realize ourselves as human beings materially, intellectually, spiritually.”
Frances Pla Casteltort – Head of the Department for Culture and Cultural Heritage of the Council of Europe stated “The whole Europe appreciated and voted for this project. The global community of heritage in Europe is very proud of what you have developed here.”
Willemijn van Haaften, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands said: “I am very happy to be here, my heritage is also here, I am a European citizen. It is very important for all communities in Europe to be proud and involved in the restoration of heritage and to work as it was done here. There is a lot of power in this part of Europe, there is a lot of power in other parts of Europe, and we should combine this power to make a powerful Europe together.”
Irina Iamandescu, Secretary of the Romanian National Committee emphasized: “The combination between the technical specialty part, which was at an exceptional level, and the community that contributed and somehow specialized, learned how to do this work well is the value of this project and the secret ingredient for which all these three prizes where won, all together.”
An emotional moment was the unveiling of the Europa Nostra plaque, by Mrs. Elena Dimitrova, and Mr. Nuţu Dumitru-Gabriel. The program continued with Călin Han, a clarinetist in the military band of the Land Forces Academy in Sibiu, passionate about traditional wind instruments, who delighted us with melodic lines that matched perfectly with the event’s setting.
The artistic moment was followed by the speech of Ştefan Bâlici, President of the OAR – Order of Architects from Romania, restoring architect in this project, and Alexandra Lăcătuş, representative of the community in Alma Vii. The event ended with the warm words of Carolina Fernolend, President of MET Foundation, who started the speech by mentioning “I would like to start by thanking those without whom we would not be here today: we are talking about the MET London Foundation, which in 2000 agreed to open and invest in a Romanian foundation. This is how the MET Romania Foundation was born.”
We thank the Alma Vii community for their involvement and trust. We hope to have an equally beautiful collaboration in the future.
We thank the partners: MET London, Horizon Foundation, EEA Grants, AFCP and all the specialists and collaborators involved, who contributed to this exceptional result.
You gave us and you give us courage to go on. Without you we would not have succeeded.
We thank Europa Nostra and the European Commission.