Elevator-equipped Northern Romania church gets EU funding for refurbishment
The 14th century Evangelical Church in Bistriţa, in Northern Romania, will be revamped with EUR 3 million EU funds, Mediafax reported. The church was severely damaged in a 2008 fire.
The revamping work will total EUR 3.3 million, of which 87% will come from non-refundable funds. The Bistriţa City Hall will put up another EUR 440,000. The EU funding will be granted through the Priority Axis 5.
“This is a project that started in 2006 – 2007. We have managed to finance it only now. After signing the financing contract, we will finish the technical project and we will start the construction work, in order to bring the Evangelical Church to the shape it had several hundred of years ago,” said Ovidiu Creţu, the mayor of Bistriţa.
The interior of the church will be consolidated and refurbished, the walls, ceiling and lateral gates will be restored, as will the stained glass, the wall paintings and the stone monuments. The organ of the church will be modernized, as well as the furniture. The church has a rich in situ Saxon furniture collection dating back to the 16th - 19th centuries. Visiting ramps for tourists will also be set up.
The Bistriţa City Hall estimates that the works could start in March 2018 and end by July 2020.
Some 15,000 tourists visit the site yearly, but the City Hall hopes to bring the number to 390,000 ten years after the revamping works are completed.
The Evangelical Church in Bistriţa has the tallest stone tower in Romania, of 75 meters. Access to the tower is made with the help of a modern elevator. Its architecture is representative for the transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance style in Transylvania.
editor@romania-insider.com
(Photo by Andrei Kokelburg, Wikimedia)
