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(cover)

MIHAI EMINESCU TRUST

(One name from the list):

● Imbunatatirea calitatii vietii prin punerea in valoare a patrimoniului cultural în

Transilvania (Improving community life quality by revitalizing Transylvanian cultural
heritage)
● Drumul pentru (revitalizarea) comunitate și patrimoniul multicultural în Transilvania
(The road to revitalizing communities and their multicultural heritage in
Transylvania).
● În drumul pentru o dezvoltare durabilă în Transilvania : comunitățile și patrimoniul
multicultural (On the road to sustainable development in Transylvania : communities
and multicultural heritage)
● Pe drumul revitalizării patrimoniului cultural și a comunităților din Transilvania (On
the road to revitalizing cultural heritage and communities in Transylvania)
● Pe drumul către dezvoltarea comunitară integrală prin revitalizarea patrimoniului
multicultural în Transilvania (On the road to community integral development
through the revitalization of the multicultural heritage in Transylvania)

Din anul 2000 până în prezent

(From 2000 to today)
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(At the verso of the tittle page)

* This book has been written by Leticia Doormann at the request of the mihai Eminescu Trust non profit
organization in Romania.

Small photo doing interviews?

Leticia Doormann was born in Buenos Aires, Argentine and she currently lives in Paris, France. She has first
graduated from environmental studies in Argentine; then from socio-ecological management in Spain, and
finally from geographical studies in France. Her work aspires to integrate an holistic vision to connect people,
thoughts and spaces, and to contribute in finding routes to solve the puzzles of creating healthy environments.
She loves life, storytelling and every sense of poetry.

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(epigraph)

The past and the future

Are two sides of one page;
He who learns them will discover
a beginning's found at the end of an age.

Mihai Eminescu (1850 – 1889)

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Table of contents

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PREFACE

by Leo Orellana

UNESCO convened a meeting of experts on “Culture and tourism, facts of sustainable development” in
Bucharest and the Danube delta from September 22nd to 26th, 2008. It was there that I had the pleasure to
listen to Ms. Caroline Fernolend’s presentation on Saxon villages. On this occasion, she showed a picture that,
in my view, conveyed the essence and spirit of the work carried out by the Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) since
the year 2000. It showed a smiling Roma child peeking out of a window of his family’s Saxon house.

Following her presentation, Ms. Fernolend and myself discussed architectural and historical heritage versus
living heritage. Interestingly enough, we disagreed. Indeed, the apparent importance given to what I would call
the static historical heritage over the living one was overwhelming. This debate was the beginning of a long
working relationship.

In fact, MET had been humbly developing a social and sustainable project that fostered local capabilities,
incorporated training, created jobs and thus provided incentives for the local population to stay rather than
seeking opportunities elsewhere.

A few months later, I traveled to Viscri and met the MET team. I discovered a cooperative, diverse, young and
partly complementary team. Ms. Fernolend was the catalyzer of this group, with members from both the city
and the country. Her charismatic personality and local origin were key to the success of the project.

My first task at MET was to evaluate prior projects. I worked with the MET team members during this process,
hoping that reviewing past projects' successes and failures would facilitate learning. Thanks to a capacity
building project, the team members were able to see the bigger picture, examining their accomplishments as
well as gaining a deeper understanding of what they could do differently. They began to grow closer to one
another and more confident in their abilities.

This process also showed how essential the local communities are in such projects and how much involvement
is needed from them. Rather than simply receiving assistance, they were given the tools to shape their own
futures. At the same time, the foundation evolved from being a helping hand to one that acts as a catalyst in
rural development.

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The quality of life of the local population had been consciously included in the project without shifting its initial
goal – the preservation of the architectural heritage.

The next challenge will be to maintain the evolving agricultural character of the communities in question in the
face of an economy now based on tourism, while keeping the villages intact in their authentic state.

I have no doubts that, together, the MET team and the community, will achieve this as well. I have seen them
evolve to date, growing with every challenge they have faced.

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CAROLINE OPENING WORDS

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INTRODUCTION
An inside co-creation story

I have always observed the unforeseen universe of coincidences with great fascination. To my mind, and as
the writer of these words, there seems to be an innate connection between all human beings. We are all just
one. If for any reason this connection needs to be activated, an unconscious mechanism usually turns on, and
allows this connection take the form of a meeting. This last one, however, is usually perceived just as a
coincidence. In the case of Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) and myself, this mechanism goes by the name of Léo
Orellana. Léo, who has been MET’s external advisor for almost 10 years, and whom I had curiously
encountered some months before I joined the Trust, is the person who has connected MET to myself. Léo is
the spark behind this book, and who, during a rainy day of the Parisian winter, made this meeting, this so
called coincidence, happen.

I first encountered MET along with some villages of Southern Transylvania, Romania, during the spring of
2015. While I was first getting to know the organisation, and for whom their work was carried out, I was also
being asked to write this book about both of them. During this time, I accompanied MET carry out its daily
actions, I visited the landscapes that portray Transylvania, and I met many of those people who fill this book
with their feelings and thoughts.

If I was asked to describe in one word the first sensation I felt when encountering MET, these villages and their
people, this word would be “warmth”. People's regards are warm, conversations with MET team members are
warm, and the relationship between MET and the villagers is warm. There is an unspoken “warmth” in
everything MET does, and in how it does it. This embodies something quite unusual in the world of today,
something that has immediately inspired me to write these lines down.

Intended to commemorate the 15th anniversary of MET’s activities in Romania, this book seeks to summarise
the Trust's path from a human perspective, in other words, from a warm point of view. In this regard, the book
aims to answer a question that seems simple, but is full of complex connotations:

How has MET contributed, through the revitalisation of the local cultural heritage, in improving people's
lives?

When I first asked this question to myself, I had to take a big breath in order to think carefully about its meaning.
How to stay rigorous when answering a question so deeply subjective? Thus, I realized that the best way to
response to this challenge was as simple as to bring MET and its projects to life on the page. If I could take

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the reader to a village in Transylvania with all its shapes and colours, and if I could show the effect that the
projects have on the villages and on those who inhabit them, then I would be telling the very subjective story
of MET’s projects through an objective lens.

Therefore, along these lines I aim to describe MET's and its projects’ identity through empathising the
experiences and memories of those involved and affected, but without losing sight of the facts.

Alongside bibliographical references and statistical data, the statements and ideas presented in this book
emerged from my own observations and from conversations with MET team members, inhabitants of four
villages and local authorities. A total of 50 interviews were carried out in May 2015. While MET members were
asked to share their knowledge, learnings and experiences; villagers have been asked to share their life
stories, their perception of MET and to describe how MET came to leave a footprint on their own and their
communities’ lives.

To organise these discoveries, this book is structured as follows. The first two chapters are dedicated to
Transylvania, and to discussing the meaning of revitalising the cultural heritage. The third chapter is centred
on MET, and its formation, functioning and evolution. Finally, the last four chapters focus on MET's activities
in four distinctive villages: Viscri, Mălâncrav, Criț and Alma Vii. These villages were chosen specifically to
highlight in detail the path travelled to arrive to the current situation, and the singularities of the projects that
have been developed.

In this way, these pages aim to inspire others to follow MET steps. However, readers should be warned that
this book does not intend to present a model of operation to follow. Instead, it aims to share the process MET
went through, and to encourage others to go through a process of their own. Furthermore, my suggestion is
that this book should not be interpreted as a finished work, but preferably, as just one more brick of a building.
This is the reason why this narration will finish with a “semicolon” instead of a “full stop”, which is capable of
both closing an idea, while, at the same time, leaving the next phrase open to boundless possibilities.

To conclude, I should add that I felt honoured every time someone opened their arms to me; and I felt
admiration each time someone shared their personal story and feelings with me. Every and each person I met
offered me their irreplaceable time and priceless memories. I am glad to say that I feel grateful of being part
of this big family called MET, and of an even bigger family called southern Transylvania.

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3. TRANSYLVANIA
Romania’s multicultural bouquet

Every place could be imagined as a dynamic record of a human activity. History is often said to be written into
the landscape. Places are shaped by the people inhabiting them, so they reflect the skills, aspirations and
feelings of successive generations that have lived in them. It is impossible to separate Transylvania from its
history, just as it is impossible to separate its landscape from the people who have lived there, who live there
now, and those who will live there in the years and centuries to come.

ILLUSTRATION: MAP OF TRANSYLVANIA – TO BE DRAWN

Transylvania is a region located in the north-west of Romania. Its name derives from medieval Latin, stemming
from ultra silvam, which literally translates to “beyond the forest”. Enveloped by the half-moon of the Carpathian
mountains, Transylvania is a plateau with soft hills, fresh rivers and deep forests. As a consequence of an
historical miracle1, this picture is completed with the presence of four main cultures: Romanian, Hungarian,
Saxon and Roma, which have learned to coexist together over time.

NOT EMBOIDED IN THE THE TEXT, TO BE EMBOIDED IN A SEPARATE PAGE OR IN A CALLOUT

"Nestled in the east section of the Austrian Empire, friendly highlands rise from the Hungarian plains. Small
in size but rich in beauty and nature’s treasures. In size not much more than 1100 "quarter miles"
(approx.61,000 sqkm). Meeting Hungary’s northern mountainous wall it is surrounded by mighty mountain
chain, the Carpathians. Far across the land one can see mountain peaks and pinnacles covered with
blinding snow, reaching high into the blue sky. Only a few passes open towards the noon sun to the lands of
the lower Danube and towards the morning sun to the wide Slavic flatlands of Russia. As if God himself
placed the land at the border of occidental culture, as a strong fortress ... Originating at the high alpine
borders, rows of mountain ranges mostly majestically crowned with forests, cross the land in all directions.
The land hides salt and precious metals of all kind in surprising abundance. From the iron which shields life,
to the gold that corrupts it. Innumerable thermal and mineral springs flow from earth’s bosom, creeks and
rivers beautify and water the land everywhere. On sunny slopes the grape glows and the sumptuous fruit
tree blooms. Wheat fields wave in the valleys, wild animals roam the forests, domesticated animals are in
abundance. This is the land of Transylvania and should the people lack something, it’s mostly their own
fault...."

1 Bratianu, 2009
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G. D. Teutsch, 1858

Certainly, the first thing that greets the eyes of a visitor arriving to Transylvania is its beauty. This is not,
however, just a superficial or ordinary beauty; this is a pure, transparent and genuine one. Transylvanian
landscapes seem enchanted: they are dominated by green forest hills framing even greener pastures,
segmented by winding roads, dotted with small villages, and crowded with miscellaneously rich stories.

Each of the villages in the Southern region of Transylvania seems its own bucolic idyll. Surrounded by grazing
animals and plots with vegetables and grains, most of the villages are pretty harmonious: reddish tiled roofs
rise above, and walls are colourfully painted. The houses are also quite similar to each other in size and
spacing. A fruit tree usually towers over a bench in front of each home, providing somewhere to sit in the fresh
air while watching people and animals pass by. The further the villages stray from the main routes, the more
they enjoy the silence of a nature that is not really silent, as there are usually birds singing, children playing or
people chatting in the front doors. There is generally a calm and a pleasant atmosphere; villages seem like
families themselves. This is something that cannot be explained in only words; their beauty has to be felt.

However, this so abstract and yet concrete beauty is also tinged in a sense of melancholy. While cheerful
music plays in the villages, there seems to be a prevailing feeling of loneliness. “Romania is the country where
misfortune can sometimes smile”, the French writer Paul Morand would say. This sensation is singularly
strange, and it evokes a mixture of joy and sadness combined. Wisely, the Romanian language has come with
a word to display this unique aggregate of pain and delight: Dor. And there is certainly no word in English to
say so much in so few letters. Dor means openness and closeness, attraction and detachment, desire and
exhaustion, it is the agony and thirst for life; everything merged, everything together and fused into three small
letters.2

Still, this feeling, this (in) tangible dor feeling, is not felt all the time. Moreover, it is more palpable in those
villages where MET has not left its mark. Trying to explain this better, one may ask oneself where does this
melancholic aura come from, and what is its relationship to MET’s motivations. Is it part of the Rumanian
personality, or a consequence of Transylvania's past? Is it linked to people's lack of confidence in the future
or in themselves? Is it a mix of everything or none of the above? If there is a close bond between melancholy
and geniality, is it possible that through revitalising cultural heritage, MET has come to reactivate this last one?

Saxon's settlement in Transylvania

2 From Constantin Noica, 1978

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Transylvania has been inhabited for centuries by numerous peoples, predominately Dacian and later Daco-
Roman, but also Gepids, Szeklers, Slavs, Bulgarian and Pechenegs. Up until the 12 th century, however, its
people never included Germans.

If the local myths are to be believed, the legend says that when the “Pied Piper of Hamelin” had led the children
of the Lower Saxony town in Germany away, they emerged from the “Almasch” cave into Transylvania. As
usual, reality has a more sober explanation for the presence of blond-haired, blue-eyed German-speakers in
Romania; yet the historical facts are no less curious.

According to historiography, during the 11th. and 12th. century the kings of Hungary invaded today's
Transylvania with the aim of colonising and Christianising the territory. 3 Seeking to cement his hold on the
territory, and in order to protect the land from other invasions, Géza II King of Hungary, invited Germanic
Christians from the Mosel Region, what is now the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, to settle in the new
lands, and secure them for their own. Between the years 1142 and 1162, around 200-300 adventurous families
today known as Saxons, totalling 2000–3000 individuals positively answered this call.4 They were promised
fertile soils and community and administrative autonomy, in exchange for protecting and strengthening borders
against enemy attacks. Since around the year 1206, these new arrivals were referred to, in Hungarian medieval
documents, as hospites Saxons5; and their settlement opened a new chapter in Transylvania history.

Years passed, prosperity increased and this Saxon civilization began to flourish. With seven towns and 250
villages in southern Transylvania, little by little, they became the masters of their space. Shaped by the
environment, and shaping it in turn, their economy has remained the same for centuries: simple and mainly
based on agriculture, pastoralism, craft-making and trading with the East and West, a combination that has
proudly allowed them to be self-sufficient in partial isolation from their home-land.6 Within this context, the
Transylvanian panorama appears to have smoothly evolved, adding large and small villages to natural hills
and valleys. Except for periods of siege and plague, the local landscape could have been easily imagined as
a simple and placid place, a harmonious mixture of farms and towns. Even today, the air still smells pleasant,
blending wild flowers, bread, and wet paving stones.

Like little islands in the middle of a verdant land, each Saxon village was unique, although they all used to
follow a pre-defined pattern. Usually built around a small stream, villages were organised in tight groups of

3 Gündisch, 1998, J.M. Picard, 2006

4 J.M. Picard, 2006
5 Gündisch, 1998
6 J.M. Picard, 2006
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households, increasing community cohesion. Villages that were situated in valleys developed around a central
and open street, where houses formed a linear pattern on either side. Those situated on flat land followed a
more radial pattern, with secondary streets that flowed to a larger main street.7 “Villages were extraordinary
beautiful, every house had an apple tree, flowers and animals”, recalls a villager from Alma Vii. In every village,
there was also a main square with a Tanzplatz (Dance Square), the place where people congregated, social
life unfolded, and where music was played every Sunday afternoon. Almost every village was also graced with
a church-regulated school, a town hall, barns for communal seeds storage, and even neighbourhood
associations to manage decisions and conflicts.

The early houses were constructed with wood and mortared with clay. Around the 17 th and 18th century and
after numerous fires, houses began to be built from brick and stones, and are still standing today. “Architecture
was simple, smooth, fine... houses were built with patience”, the craftsman Ernst Linzing from the village of
Mălâncrav says. Façades were colourfully painted with a palette of pastel colours, each different but overall
similar in tone, and ornamented with a host of rural allegories specific to each area, such as grains, seeds or
fruits. Houses ran alongside the main street, one after the other one, like a polychromatic and symphonic
fence. They were built simply but efficiently, suitable for both long winters and warm summers. As expected,
they were built with local materials such as timber, stone, bricks and tiles crafted from local clay. In overall,
these houses were functional, robust and above all, greatly beautiful.

VILLAGE PHOTO

“Each household was like its own village”, the same craftsman pointed out. All Saxon houses were protected
by a gate, had a barn in the back, and were organised to provide a family everything it could need. In this
sense, every house had a living space with a winter and a summer kitchen, a shared bedroom and an outside
toilet. Behind the house vegetable patches and a barn flanked a cobbled courtyard. After this one, a vegetable
plot and orchard, usually framed by a row of walnut trees, led to further fields and pastures up to the edge of
the forest.8 This configuration allowed agriculture to be both intensive and extensive, on individual and
communal basis, and always highly coordinated on the village level.

Each village and each community of Southern Transylvania had also a church at its core: a place where people
met, where decisions were made and where policies and regulations were fashioned. Churches were the place
where life was organised. They represented the conjunction between spirituality and pragmatism with one aim:

7 Institutul National al Patrimoniului and UNESCO, 2010

8 Kim Wilkie Associates, 2007
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surviving as a community. They were first built in Roman style, then predominantly Gothic, and since around
1430, they were fortified to protect people from Tatar and Turk raids. 9 Lutheranism was embraced in the 16th
century, changing local, physical and metaphysical reality ever since.

Church fortification followed a pattern of town fortification. When required, these structures allowed the
continuation of everyday life inside their walls, and provided protection when needed. Inside them, there were
storehouses, granaries, mills and bread baking ovens and even schools.10 These fortified churches still stand
today, and they represent the Saxon legacy in the territory. Built in the middle ages, they synthesised,
expressed and have guarded Saxon culture over time. They were genuine community symbols, architectural
monuments around which the villages and communities have developed.

CHURCH PHOTO

For almost 800 years, the liberty granted by the Kings of Hungary allowed Saxon communities to manage their
own affairs in their own Germanic language. Priests and other community representatives were chosen by the
community, and decisions were taken collectively. It is said that it was communal aid and neighbourhood
cooperation what have let the community to survive and thrive with integrity. As Sara Dootz, a Saxon
octogenarian from the village of Viscri puts it: “communal space was more important than home, because
communal space kept us alive and united for centuries”. Old Saxon cooperation relied on “Nachbarschaften”
or informal neighbourhood associations, where groups of neighbours joined to manage collective actions or
interests. These associations, headed by community members elected every 2 years, were responsible for
tasks that varied from house, field and forest maintenance, to domestic conflict mitigation and even the
organisation of marriages and funerals. “For instance, if an animal became ill, the whole community bought a
piece of meat this animal to help the family buy another one. This was the traditional community spirit that was
found in these villages”, added Sara. Over time, Saxons have learnt to live under a self-government status,
internally guided by a sum of meticulous local rules, and consistent traditions. These rules covered every
aspect of daily life, from community behaviour and church manners to social proceedings. Every act of social
life was carefully organised, and people followed these instructions with strict discipline.

In this context, Saxon communal self-organisation does not represent just a poetic metaphor, but an attitude
firmly embedded in the collective memory of the settlers. Considering history, it would not be exaggerated to
ask oneself if disbanding this autonomy likely meant dispelling Saxon communities in Transylvania.

9 Institutul National al Patrimoniului, 2010

10 Institutul National al Patrimoniului, 2010
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Transylvania, as a region in Romania

When World War I ended, in 1918, Transylvania became a new province of the extended Kingdom of Romania.
After 700 years living under the Hungarian and later the Habsburg Kingdom, and around 50 years suffering
from disagreements with Austro-Hungarian policies, Transylvania’s way ahead was to continue as part of
Romania. The Saxon annexation statement was signed by both Saxons and Romanians, as well as by other
cultural groups inhabiting the area. It guaranteed the respect of Saxon historical organisation, as well as ethnic,
linguistic and religious freedom for every culture in Transylvania. 11

The cultural profile of the Transylvania we see today was shaped by this agreement, and the feeling of a
shared space materialised. Alongside the Hungarian community, which had inhabited Transylvania since the
12th century, the numbers of Romanians in Transylvania gradually increased since the Middle Ages reaching
a peak during World War I. When Transylvania became part of Romania, the Romanians already represented
two thirds of the regional population, followed in numbers by Roma. 12

Professional and social bonds between Saxons and non-Saxons were forged. “There used to be a kind of
marriage between the two cultures, people understood each other”, said Ionel Sotropa, a school professor
from the village of Moșna. Even if Saxons kept speaking their mother tongue, an ancient Luxembourg dialect
among them, Romanian became the language of daily exchange among people in the villages. To quote poet
Mihai Eminescu, “the language is the most effective instrument of the Romanian unity”, and Transylvania would
be a good example of it. On another front, the Lutheran church continued to lay down the rules of the Saxon
social life, priests continued to be chosen by the community, and the church maintained its role in education
by managing schools. Romanian schools were also added to guarantee equal opportunities for everyone, and
Orthodox churches were built in every village to mirror the demographic changes.13 In this way, under the
banner of the officially declared equal rights, Transylvania was formally becoming a cultural mosaic within the
Kingdom of Romania, where plurality came to mark the pages of this landscape. Even though, social disparities
were still present, and mixed marriages were socially unaccepted.

However, somehow confused in this early amalgamation of space and identity, a competitive game seems to
have begun, and each cultural group started to affirm their existence in the region. It is suggested that there
has been an inequitable land and labour division, very far away from utopian blends. “Saxons were the owners
of the land, but everyone in the village, regardless of their origin, had work to do”, a farmer said in Viscri. In

11 J.M. Picard, 2006

12 J.M. Picard, 2006
13 J.M. Picard, 2006

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this way, Transylvania entered into a time of Romanisation, a smooth transition towards adapting to a new
social and more plural reality, which will inversely and sometime later, germanise the slightly porous Saxon
population at that time.

“Throughout the same period of time, and through the same landscape, Romanian shepherds, accompanied
by their flock of sheep, passed, with heavy steps, in front of old, grey Saxon citadel towers. At that time,
there were two types of humans sharing the same landscape, but living in different spaces. While both were
living next to each other, they never joined. They were unconsciously separated by ancient horizons of
different nature. 800 years have not yet been sufficient to reduce this distance”
Lucian Blaga, by the beginning of 20th. century

By 1939, just before World War II broke out, Transylvania was undeniably a part of Romania, but Saxons’
feelings seem like caught between their German origins and their Romanian present. World War II left the
Saxons in a quandary. When Romania changed sides in August of 1944, from fighting alongside with the
Germans, to joining the Allies, many Saxons did not. After having fought for the Reich in the first years of the
war, Romania’s change of heart placed the Saxons on the losing side of the battle, and on the enemy side in
Transylvania.

When war ended, almost 30,000 Saxons were deported to labour camps in Russia, both world war II survivors
as well as men and women who had not fought in the war. The only redeeming aspect was that this led to
mixed marriages between Saxons and non-Saxons, out of love but also out of convenience. All Saxons
between the ages of 17 to 45 who were married to non-saxons were spared from the labour camps. Despite
any sign of repentance, the Saxon community was stamped with a moral debt, an historic remorse to their
country, Romania. As an indirect consequence, most of the Saxons' lands were confiscated by the state, and
even the Protestant Lutheran church was threatened with dissolution. With many families broken by war and
neighbourhood associations dissolved, a general loss of community cohesion followed. “World War II brought
death, then family breakdown and finally community disintegration”, said Sara from Viscri. Isolated and mostly
despised by their fellow neighbours, from this point on, the Saxon physical presence in Transylvania seems to
gradually start to erode.

The Communist period

Soviet troops present in Romania since 1944 brought communist rule, and the Romanian Communist Party
won the elections in 1946. Within a few years, communism pervaded all walks of life in Romania, with land
confiscation, industrial nationalisation and communist-style homogenisation as visible consequences. In a

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short period of time, the basic economy of Southern Transylvania abruptly changed from agro-pastoralism and
craft making to employment in factories and the public administration. All this ended by leading to a further
stripping of identity, weakening of community relations and abandonment of local traditions. 14 In this context,
it is said that the majority of the Saxons did no longer find their place, as they were besides denied of political
rights15. “We were farmers here, and we liked being farmers”, said the same farmer from Viscri quoted above.
Their culture began to fade, removed from façades and hidden in barns, small but essential elements of the
Saxon rural life started to find their place only in the romanticism of a blurred memory. In this context,
emigration became to be seen as a solution for their misfortune.

“Villages and towns became artificial places, involuntary meeting points of the already displaced populations.
The Saxons no longer felt at home in their own homeland, they had become strangers!”
Ernst Wagner, 1982

In every family, and as said above, working for the state or in a factory replaced the social place that peasantry,
craftsmanship and entrepreneurship used to have in rural communities. Until 1945, 85% of the Saxons were
economically independent, of which 70% were farmers; after less than a decade, only 22% of Saxons were
employed in farming, now in the form of new collective farms. 16 Traditional artefacts became treasures of older
generations, and artistic and craft skills were no longer passed on. Overall, there was a stagnating of the rural
society and individual creativity was being driven to the underground.

Meanwhile, numerous communist projects were introduced to standardise the territory, substituting old-
fashioned rural landscapes with new and bustling industrial ones. Among them, the “systematisation plan”,
communist ruler Ceaușecu's project to turn Romania into a "multilaterally developed socialist society". The
plan emerged in 1987, basically proposing demolishing more than 7,000 existing villages across Romania,
urbanising the country, and dispersing the remaining peasants to concrete-built and agro-industrial complexes
in cities. The revolution in December 1989 that toppled the regime, also came to prevent these plans from
coming into effect all across Romania, and saved many Transylvanian villages from total destruction.

However, the revolution could not dispel the fear that had become embedded in people. This fear had grown
among the cities and communities. Many people, and not just those of Saxons origins, became afraid of taking
actions, afraid of talking, afraid of feeling, and afraid of living. And this kind of fear is also the greatest enemy
of freedom.

14 J.M. Picard, 2006

15 Gündisch, 1998
16 Gündisch, 1998

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Progressively, many of these communist policies had a destabilising effect on the communities' essence in
Romania. In the case of the Saxons, the new order ended also by dismantling their historical self-organisation.
Could it be possible that this gradual loss of independence eventually eroded Saxon personality in
Transylvania, and therefore, precipitated a wish to leave?

After World War II, Saxons began to flee from Transylvania, mostly towards Germany but also to the United
States and Austria. Initially the goal was to unite families torn apart during the War and after, as soldiers unable
to return back, were released in Frankfurt, and their families in Transylvania fled to join them. 17 From 1978
onward, restored diplomatic relations between Romania and Germany, also allowed German-speaking Saxons
to legally emigrate to West-Germany, which was only possible after cumbersome paperwork and the condition
to leave their properties to the state in Romania. “People were put a price, and Germany paid Romania to
allow some Saxons leave the country”, school professor Sotropa described it. In fact, many people tried to
emigrate during and after communism, but Romanian Saxons and Jews had the advantage that West Germany
and Israel respectively covered the costs of their emigration. As communist grip hardened, this Saxon
emigration increased up until its peak in early 1990s, just after the fall of communism. 18 The numbers speak
for themselves: Lutheran churches counted 250,000 members in 1940; a number that has abruptly dropped
to 177,000 in 1977, 41,400 in 1992, 17,000 in 1996 and 12,500 in 2015. That is to say that around 240,000
and more than 90% of the Saxon population left Transylvania in just 60 years.19

The fall of communism in 1989 triggered and opened the possibility for all the Saxon population to leave. When
people were given equal right to emigrate, almost all of the German speaking population living in Transylvania
just left. In this way, they also left behind 850 years of Saxon history in region in the form of farms without
farmers, “Tanzplätze” without the patter of dancing feet, and churches – painstakingly fortified against any
invaders – devoid of priests or parishioners.

It seems hard to imagine such a mass exodus: as torrential and emotionally violent as it was peaceful and
premeditated. The Saxons were often and in many villages important pillars of their communities, and with
their sudden departure, they certainly left voids that the remaining inhabitants had to scramble to fill. “It was
terrible to see all my friends leaving”, remembered a craftsman in Viscri. As a people they seem having left the
land they had once settled guided by the same desire for freedom and a better home that brought them to
Transylvania in a first place.

17 Gündisch, 1998
18 J.M. Picard, 2006
19 J.M. Picard, 2006

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Prior to 1990, local authorities acquired the houses of the leaving Saxons to be rented to new tenants.
However, many of those Saxons leaving after 1990 just locked the doors of their homes no longer planning to
return. Some kept their houses as summer residences, a place to heal homesickness, and some houses were
left or sold to new inhabitants who moved in or bought them as a summerhouse. Yet other houses were simply
abandoned, left to nature and the steady decay of time.

As a man from Criț remembered it: “We were neighbours, and all of a sudden he said he was leaving. I wasn't
surprised, because everyone was leaving. He just asked me to look after his parents' grave in the cemetery,
and since then, it is me who brings the flowers.... the neighbourhood became colder when they left”. A woman
in the village of Alma Vii also recalls: “I bought this house from a Saxon family, back in the 90's, its four
members left all together to Germany. When I arrived at the house, everything was intact, the house was all
furnished, there was food in the kitchen, they had even left their pyjamas in their bedrooms. Now, for the past
five years, their children, already grown-ups, have been coming every summer and they stay in their old
rooms.”

Transylvania, off and on

When Communism fall and Saxon population left, everything indicates that the entire region was forced to turn
the page. From the synthesis of the Transylvanian cultural mixture, communities were asked to be born anew.

However, after years of top-down decisions and efforts to create a homogenised society, many of those who
remained appear to have been robbed of their imagination, and of the initiative of leading a change. The
juxtaposition of different cultural origins and livelihoods also became sometimes difficult to harmonise,
especially when leadership was scarce.

From the built-heritage point of view, many villages turned into a mix of architectural styles, a blend of
abandonment and random modernisations. Without Saxons, most of the Saxon cultural heritage became also
an historical footnote for the villagers, poorly understood and little valued. This seems logical after all, as the
health of heritage could be viewed at as testimony of a healthy community. Buildings, traditions and pieces of
heritage carry a memory, a story, a legacy. In this manner, places not taken care of become no more than
beautiful yet motionless monuments, empty symbols, voided of emotions. It is people's connections, feelings
and thoughts pertaining to a place that brings it to life, and vice-versa.

“When Saxons were here, every occupation was represented in the village”, said the blacksmith from the

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village of Viscri. But right after the revolution, villages provided few job opportunities and only few people
stayed, mostly elders. The general sense of belonging to a community was low, people felt powerless and
disparities moved to the forefront. The challenges the communities faced were multiple, from the lack of urban
services to a lack of faith in people themselves.

Within this context, the Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) came to life with the aim of reviving the economic and
social life of the villages by valorasing the historical Transylvanian heritage. But several questions arose
immediately. Among them, how to revive and give a new signification to a cultural heritage that seems barely
felt and recognised? How to repair communities’ social fabric by renewing the values of their multicultural and
shared heritage? And finally, how to erase that prevailing melancholy and restore people's enthusiasm and
confidence to become self-sufficient and self-fulfilled?

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4. CULTURAL HERITAGE
Respecting the past, embracing the future

“Omul sfințește locul”

(Man sanctifies the place)
Romanian proverb

Cultural heritage can be defined as the expression of the ways of living that are developed by a community
and passed on from generation to generation.20 Metaphorically speaking, cultural heritage could be
represented by the point where culture, landscape and history intersect.

It also contains its own soul, which is said to be formed by tangible and intangible elements, both closely
connected. Tangible heritage refers to things that can be touched or seen, such as buildings, some art, or
objects; while intangible heritage, on the contrary, refers to things that cannot be touched or seen, such as
customs, music, language, or traditions. Cultural heritage can take many shapes, be large or tiny, abstract or
concrete, old or ancient. However, these things have in common that all heritage acts as a living being, one
that breathes, grows and changes with time.

From the most impressive cathedral to the shortest tale, in Transylvania and elsewhere, cultural heritage is
capable of connecting people with certain shared beliefs and values. Cultural heritage is more than just a
repository of history; cultural heritage gives distinctiveness, meaning and quality to things and places, providing
a sense of continuity and, above all, acting as a source of collective memory and identity. 21

On one hand, heritage is capable of expressing features of a particular culture, the recognizable signposts of
an identity. On the other hand, cultural heritage also internalises the abstract knowledge and feelings behind
that identity; this is collective memory of a certain society. As such, heritage may be capable of materialising
what a society experiences and has experienced; and it can also foster a “sense of belonging”, as it implies a
shared bond of belonging to a certain community in a certain place. In this regard, cultural heritage could also
be compared to an iceberg, where the visible part contains those tangible and intangible elements that form
the heritage itself, and the invisible part is the cultural essence that hides beneath.

“Heritage is not just about sticks and stones. It's about people's memories and it's about things making sense

20 UNESCO and ICOMOS, 2002

21 Modified from English Heritage, 2008
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to people, part of the accumulated culture of their communities”
John Yates, English Heritage

Furthermore, cultural heritage is also the result of a process, in which every generation constantly chooses
what is worthy of being preserved. Thus, as heritage is a core element of communities, the act of safeguarding
it is typically one of their inherent responsibilities. By reviving the soul of a tradition or an object, for example,
a secret recipe or a school building, communities select and pass on to future generations what has been
passed on by their predecessors. But what happens if for some reason this social device stops working?

In Southern Transylvania in particular, Saxon cultural heritage that took centuries to develop was for the most
part frozen when the majority of Saxons left around 1990. In the same way their buildings also fell into disuse,
their traditions began to decay, disrupting a shared heritage, thus a memory and an identity. In a similar way,
the multicultural heritage of villages also suspended in time, as people progressively lost sight of the
significance of their heritage, and its importance for their well-being.

Meanwhile, in acknowledgement of the historical and symbolic value of the Saxon architectural heritage in the
region, the Romanian government has sought to protect many places in Transylvania. UNESCO has declared
some parts of the region to be World Heritage Sites, such as the citadels of the villages of Câlnic, Biertan,
Saschiz, Prejmer, Viscri, Valea Viilor, Dârjiu and of the medieval citadel of Sighișoara. First national and then
international recognition emphasised the commitment to protect those sites of outstanding universal value.
However, despite the privilege that such declarations bestowed, the question remains whether it is enough to
safeguard the integrity of this heritage and to revitalise its place in current communities.

Conservation or revitalisation ?

Conservation is widely understood as a strategy to keep something as close to its original condition as possible,
for as long as possible. In other words, conservation aims to secure the survival or preservation of anything of
acknowledged value for the future. 22 However, protecting heritage from modern influences has, unfortunately,
turned conservation into a protection strategy to the point of isolation.

This vision of conservation, close to complete physical preservation, has saved many exemplary pieces of
cultural heritage from forgetfulness and abandonment. Yet, remaining highly selective, it became associated
with the untouchable, museums, glass boxes, and academic research. This might have helped safeguard
many places, but it has also created museum-towns or even tourist attractions far removed from the core of

22 British Standards 7913:1998 - Guide to the principles of the conservation of historic buildings
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the original community. In the words of Jessica Douglas-Home, founder of MET: “Without care of the heritage,
the villages would die. But they would also die if they became nothing more than empty relics, to be gazed at
by curious tourists.”

Fortunately, the philosophical approach of conservation is evolving over the past decade, at least when
referring to cultural heritage. Nowadays, conservation has become a more complex and public activity, in which
the perspective is changing from a conservation closely linked to objects to a conservation that looks to retain
cultural values as a whole. As an heritage researcher have said: “other times honoured goals of eternity,
stability and permanence are nowadays increasingly discarded as unreachable”.23 Cultural heritage is more
and more understood as a living body of objects and traditions that are in constant evolution. In this context,
conservation in the sense of absolute preservation is not only showing to be misled but also impossible.
Therefore, considering that change is inevitable, the soul of any action of conservation should be preserving
something as a dynamic structure in the present, rather than a static mirror of the past. With this in mind,
heritage conservation evolves to the idea of heritage revitalisation, in which conserving something is being
redefined into reviving it.

From this perspective, heritage conservation becomes much more than restoring and preserving a façade or
an object, as the goal is to retain its internal values by re-interpreting and re-signifying its life and integrity. This
is something that cannot be achieved by isolating heritage from society, but on the contrary, integrating it into
the fabric of community.

Why revitalise cultural heritage in Transylvania?

“Saxons have lived here, so they are Romanians, as all of us are. We have the moral obligation to keep
them in our memory and to conserve their heritage and to pass it on, even if they don't live here anymore.
This is a way of showing our respect to them for having been part of the same community”
Professor Ionel Sotropa, commune of Moșna

Given that centuries of human presence has left footprints on the entire region, it would be hopeless (even
useless) to try to revitalise every trace from the past found in the present. As heritage is part of a social process
and social construction, one must also accept that there are cycles of growth and decay inherent to this
process. But, how to choose what to revitalise going forward and what to leave in the past?

23 D. Lowenthal, 2000
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The academical arguments for heritage conservation rely on the heritage's significance.24 This derives from
the qualities and characteristics of heritage, the values attributed to it as well as its worth and importance. The
list is non-exhaustive, but those values may be categorised as historical, scientific and educational, social
(including economic, spiritual, cultural and political) and aesthetic. 25

The subjectivity and contingency that heritage values represent makes them difficult to assess. In spite of this,
when asking the people in the villages of Transylvania, be they of Saxon origin or not, why Transylvanian
cultural built heritage should be conserved, the answer was remarkably simple. Most of them answered strictly:
because it is “beautiful”.

People in Southern Transylvania seem to be more attached to some aesthetic values than other historical,
cultural or economic ones. This may be linked to the fact that most of the remaining people in Saxon traditional
villages are not of Saxon origins, and therefore, they do not share most of the Saxon cultural bonds. However,
while there is probably no more subjective topic than beauty itself, people from southern Transylvania seem
to share a similar perception of what is beautiful. If so, conserving something just because it is beautiful may
be one of the more poetic and sincere reasons, yet no less important than others based on more complex
arguments.

As shallow as it may seem, beauty brings forward many deeper connotations hidden under its surface. Beauty
is something that satisfies an aesthetic need and gives a certain pleasure to the senses. Besides, it is also
associated with the values of quality, vitality, and health, as well as with the ideals of balance and harmony.
Not surprisingly, these are also indicators of human well-being and development.26 Thus looking for beauty is
not as frivolous as it may first appear, especially when the need for beauty conveys ideas of serenity and
transcendence, and when humans are the only species to dedicate their life and efforts to the search, creation,
and preservation of beauty.27

Heritage, community and participatory approach

Cultural heritage frames social activities, sustains daily life, promotes mutual understanding, and can be a
source of knowledge and well-being while also providing economic incomes to a community. Then, why should
not its management be agreed, planned and established by the community itself?

24 Getty Conservation Institute, 2002

25 Getty Conservation Institute, 2002
26 Cohen, 2015
27 Bourassa, 1991

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As communities are the owners and caretakers of a local heritage, it is important that they are recognised and
involved in the entire process of conservation from the beginning. From this perspective, one of the biggest
challenges in a heritage revitalisation project is how to integrate the community into all stages of the
safeguarding and management of the heritage. Heritage assessment cannot be imposed, and in a context of
cultural fusion, where there is a juxtaposition of different cultural views, reference values and representations
of heritage, there should not be a better approach to legitimise a revitalisation project than leading a bottom-
up or horizontal participatory approach.

In all cases, communities need first to care about their heritage. In fact, it could be said that once heritage
acquires a meaning for a cultural group, that group will seek to perpetuate that symbolic heritage as means of
self preservation28. As outlined above, the value a community places on an object in terms of heritage has little
to do with its economic or scientific value, but moreover with the manner in which the people concerned
understand and have appropriated this heritage. To trace this process: no community makes an effort to
conserve what they do not enjoy, no community enjoys what they do not care about, no community cares
about what they do not value, and no community values what they do not understand.

Illustration: “Heritage Cycle” (sent attached - to be redrawn)

A participatory approach allows all people concerned (community, local authorities, professionals) to voice
their ideas and concerns, as well as to participate in the project of revitalisation from ideation to execution.
Community participation relies on active, continuous and dynamic involvement of those making and
implementing decisions. By this, it also fosters the sense of ownership, raises awareness, pride and leadership,
and encourages voluntary activities in the community.29 Even if a participatory approach means arduously
finding mutual agreements, once it is set in motion, it may catalyse the sense of community and responsibility
for assessing needs and problems, for implementing solutions to solve them and for valuing heritage.
Therefore, the participatory approach also becomes a strategy to empower community through reflection,
participation and collective action.

Heritage revitalisation as local development strategy

Given that heritage revitalisation is a continuous and dynamic process, it is also a prism with multiple angles
and facets. Chief among them is the fact that preserving the cultural heritage through community commitment

28 Modified from Bourassa, 1991

29 Modified from Alexander, 1992
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can improve village's cultural self-image, identity and people's well-being. When it is agreed upon by the
community, the recognition of cultural sites increases local pride, economic opportunities and the inhabitants’
willingness to live in the place, evolve and invest locally.

As stated above, the aspiration of a cultural heritage revitalisation process should be to re-signify and revive
the heritage's philosophical function30, and not to conserve a static proof from the past, empty of feeling. This
seeks to find a dignified place of heritage in modern people's daily lives.

To conclude, a participatory approach for a cultural heritage revitalisation contributes in the following ways:
communities feel more energised, new sources of employment are created, and a wide range of development
and livelihood conditions are also addressed. All this inspires people to revitalise themselves through their
heritage, contributing to more a conscious development.

30 Choay, 1992
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5. MET
From the seed to the tree

“Unde-s doi puterea creste”

(Many hands make work light)
Romanian proverb

MET's beginnings

The Mihai Eminescu Trust (MET) was founded by Jessica Douglas-Home and Noel Malcom in 1986 with the
aim of helping scholars, historians, theologians, publishers and musicians who had been forced out of their
jobs and universities during the communist purges. In the beginning, it was conceived to help these Romanian
academics and artists stay in touch with Western culture by sending them books and journals that were, at
that time, forbidden in Romania. The Eminescu trustees themselves brought books, journals and cultural
material from England into Romania but also funded numerous clandestine visits by scholars, composers and
philosophers to help these academics keep in touch with of the cultural movement from the rest of Europe. But
much has changed since those days.

Two major events will come to alter MET’s original objectives, its story and consequently, the history of a part
of Transylvania. First of these is Jessica Douglas-Home's initial trip to the region in 1987. During this trip, the
English founder of MET met a sage who told her that ancient villages from around were facing the imminent
threat of the so called “systematisation plan”, which intended to make room for factories and concrete
apartment blocks. As outlined previously, this project sought to demolish rural settlements and move their
inhabitants to cities. Distraught by these intentions, which would have put an end to an astonishing 800 years
of Saxon architectural heritage in Transylvania, MET decided to act and become the English-speaking
representative of a wider international movement to save villages in Romania from demolition. Now joined by
Mary Walsh, MET campaigned to alert the West about this mass destruction and invited HRH the Prince of
Wales to speak out. The fall of communism in 1989 nullified the threat from the systematisation plan.

A second major event occurred in 1993, when Jessica visited the Saxon villages in Transylvania with Oxford
professors Mark Almond, Norman Stone and his wife Christine. During this trip, they learnt of deserted villages
and the mass exodus of the inhabitants to Germany in 1990. In Viscri, Sara Dootz, one of the few remaining
Saxons was the first to explain to the trustees in detail the devastating situation. Whole villages, farmhouses,
manors, schools, barns and domestic dwellings were deserted and deteriorating fast.

By that time, Sara’s daughter Caroline Fernolend, also native from Viscri, was one of the few Saxons from the

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village who had decided to stay there with her family. After having worked as a chief accountant for the local
collective farm during communist times, she had now become a teacher and was actively involved in
community life. Because she was also local councillor of the village in the local government, she was already
highly concerned about Viscri's rural development.

It was the French writer Honoré de Balzac who realised that people who strongly want something are almost
always benefited by chance. Ass through following this premise, during Jessica's visit to Viscri, the two women
first met.

To understand the context in which this encounter took place, one must imagine these small villages in
Transylvania as if they had fallen into a vast figurative autumn, as trapped in soft lethargy. Most of these
ancient villages were depopulating, many houses were abandoned and gradually falling into ruin, fortified
churches stood empty or were no longer maintained. And finally, most of the remaining local population was
unemployed or asking for social aid. In the words of Jeremy Amos, adviser and member of MET's board: “when
we arrived we found a destroyed landscape, our first aim just sought to help build a new narrative.”

So, in this seemingly daunting context, the Trust decided to change again its direction, and to focus on the
protection and restoration of the Saxon buildings in the historic towns and villages. By doing so, the aspiration
was also to revive the local economy through the renewal of this cultural heritage.

Caroline's designation as the local manager of ”Fundația Mihai Eminescu Trust” in Romania in 2000 set the
commitment in stone. In this way, one could say that Jessica and Caroline, described by some MET members
as both generous, creative, and determined, have formed MET's structural pillars. As Caroline was able to
understand a village's concerns and connect to people, she came to answer the question of what was needed;
Jessica, on her side, was able to facilitate solutions to those concerns and to connect MET to other institutions,
responding to the question of how to satisfy those needs. In this complementary team, Jessica brought the
metaphorical words, providing the means, and Caroline brought the metaphorical five senses, providing the
stimulus. Through the dialogue, and under the patronage of HRH the Prince of Wales, the duo launched MET
firsts actions with a small team in Transylvania.

When interviewing MET’s current team members, one observed that “an NGO is like a house, as every
construction needs a solid base”. When comparing this statement to MET, one would realise that one of its
strength resides in its foundations. From one side, the MET team have always had strong beliefs and multi-
tasking capabilities, as well as dedication, sensibility and intelligence. From the other side, while its main
objective is clear and well defined, it is also sufficiently broad to allow adaptations: seeking to improve the
quality of life while preserving local heritage in rural communities. The combination of both factors became a

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major advantage for MET, as it allows the Trust to provide solutions and adapt to local needs and realities
under the guiding hand of the same motto.

The Whole Village Project

The beginnings

Jessica Douglas-Home describes the beginnings of MET activities in the following way: “initially, for visual
impact and to stimulate the communities’ pride in the settlements, we worked patching and lime-washing the
ancient stuccoed façades, uncovering their Latin and German inscriptions, mending windows, shutters, and
roofs. To retain the full architectural cohesion and harmony of the mediaeval streetscapes would be a transient
achievement unless the villagers’ themselves came to “own” the concept. For this, their living conditions should
be transformed. Their incentive to remain in situ was not naturally grounded in appreciation of historic
architecture, but if they saw their heritage as a fragile economic asset – once gone, never retrieved - and if
with outside assistance it could be converted into a sustainable source of income, then there would be a future
for the rural communities as well as for their ancient surroundings”.

In the beginning, actions were more drawn by intuition and devotion than extensive and methodological
planning. This is not only a genuine beginning, but also an effective one. When following an altruist desire,
ideas must be quickly transformed into actions to take effect. Without experience, sometimes the best way to
begin a walk is to take a first step.

With this impetus, MET first focused on restoring the derelict house façades. As they say at MET, “Façades
are much more than simple façades... when they shine, it means that people are happy.”. Again this was a
coherent beginning, much like the advice to wash one's face and apply some make-up as a first step towards
recovering from feeling blue. Somehow, when people feel nice from the outside, they also feel nicer in the
inside, and this awakens a sense of pride. “Façades are like the village face, when they are beautiful, there
are beautiful people living in the village”, the craftsman Ernst Linzing in the village of Mălâncrav stated. MET
proposed and executed the restoration of villagers’ old homes, and some public places in the villages were
also uplifted. Thus, while those façades were washed and patched and roofs and windows mended, beauty
was returning to the villages and the community's confidence in MET actions began to rise.

In the meantime, MET realised that if local people were trained in traditional masonry techniques, instead of
hiring outsiders for the job, they would also be given a trade, and their pride in their finished work and
surroundings would again increase together with an income.

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With this spirit, MET organised free training courses in traditional plaster techniques, iron forging,
metalworking, brick and tile making, painting and masonry, helping to revive those crafts that had lain dormant.
Trained craftsmen were encouraged to develop their own enterprises, receiving much needed funds through
their work in MET's and private restoration projects.

It is useful to transfer oneself to this initial context. Most of the places where MET worked were small rural
villages with less than 1000 inhabitants, usually forgotten from national development plans, and invisible to the
eyes of most of the NGO's. Without knowing it at the time, MET also started promoting rural sustainable
development in tiny villages hidden between valleys and mountains. This broke paradigms of the time, and a
new narrative began to be written. It was audacious, innovative and generous.

Illustration: MAP OF THE REGION WHERE MET WORKS (TO BE DRAWN)

Attracted by the ideas that MET was putting into practice, academics and professional craftsmen from
Romania, England and Germany committed and partly volunteered to MET's cause. The conservation offcer
Colin Richards came consecutively many years from Shropshire, England, to train local craftsmen in
Transylvania. The German architect Jan Hülsemann wrote a highly specialised book about Saxon heritage
restoration technique, based on the experience gained from the implementation of the MET's projects. About
this one, HRH Prince Charles of Wales, who was MET's spiritual patron by that time, used to call it “the bible
for restoration work”.

From the Romanian side, the architect Gabriel Lambescu, who unfortunately passed away in 2006, was among
those who committed the most to restoring the built heritage in the region. Gabriel was working for the
Romanian government when MET saw the light, but he quickly changed sides and joined Caroline in the team.
A perfectionist, Gabriel was passionate about the slightest details of vernacular architecture, and he was also
very strict about using local materials. He rapidly became MET's top architect, and with his expertise,
practicality, and pedagogy, Gabriel became also a keystone in consolidating trust between MET and the local
population.

To this point no work would have been possible without the support of the American benefactor David Packard
in particular, but also many other MET's friends who helped the Trust’s work in it beginnings. In 2000, the
Horizon Foundation in the person of Jeremy Amos also began its long-term support of the Trust, which
continues until today.

Despite the ample work done and visits received during those first years, the organisation in Romania
continued to be small in terms of active workers, as Caroline and Gabriel were only joined by one accountant.

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The group was not yet completely structured, and the team's intuition played an important role. Though, the
trust built in those early years between MET and the communities, their partners and local authorities has
proven to be a key factor for the subsequent development of the organisation.

Facts speak louder than words, says the old saying which MET assumed as part of its mission. “In the
beginning, local communities were not convinced by the arrival of a foreign organisation, but when they saw
everything we were doing, trust between MET and locals developed”, one member of MET stated. Trust might
be a small word, but it is full of nuances, as it is both the significance and what signifies a relationship. No
matter the size of a project, its scope or the number of people involved, trust is essential for the success of
almost anything. Trust was and continue to be the common language between MET and its people, between
MET and its partners, and between MET and communities.

Yet, trust is also hard to build and easy to destroy, especially in small villages. Even if there is no universal
recipe for building it, MET members have found that four elements were crucial: reliability, leading by example,
face-to-face communication and patience.

The concept

“Originality consists in a harmonious synthesis, ensuring that novelty is not in a thing itself,
but in its spirit”
Constantin Noica, 1978

What started in an almost instinctive manner, organically turned into The Whole Village Project (WVP). This
idea puts a name to MET's entire vision from its beginnings until today, which understands the community, the
landscape, and the heritage as one single unit. The project, like MET itself, sought and seeks to revitalise rural
communities and to improve local livelihoods through the sustainable use of their natural and cultural heritage.
All is treated as a single, whole vision from where it took its name. From MET's point of view, a village is the
result of the combination and interaction of all its components, so in order to boost social improvements and
to foster rural development, everything must be harmoniously submitted to the same approach.

To this point, it seems useful to highlight that when looking to promote local development, it is not only what it
is being done what is important, but also how this is achieved. Sometimes, what makes the difference is not
the actions undertaken, but the manner in which these are put in practice, and how these adapt to reality on
the ground, which can vary widely from one village to another.

A clear example of this comes from the words of one MET team member, who said: “we could have had a

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group of trained builders to work in the restorations of all the villages' façades, but which would be the sense?
The important thing here is that every village has its own trained craftsmen, and that the restorations in a
village are done by the same workers living in that particular village. People who restore should be the same
people that later enjoy of these building restored. There must be a connection between the work, the people
and the place.”

With the Whole Village Project, and under the unimpeachable premise of acting locally, MET offered an
alternative approach both to haphazard development and to abandonment. This approach understands that a
whole village is like a bee’s nest where each member has a specific task, so the survival and healthy evolution
of the nest is the result of everybody working together.

As time passed, the concept progressively matured. In fact, the more MET connected to people, the more it
understood people's concerns, the more MET could hone its mission and boost an integral development for
all the villages. In this way, while MET was increasing its presence in the villages, the palette of needs also
became larger, as did the range of projects developed around its first mission of safeguarding the local cultural
heritage. Always under the same umbrella of restoring cultural heritage, developing local skills, traditional crafts
and entrepreneurial capabilities, the projects gradually started including a vaster spectrum of activities. These
can nowadays be narrowed down to 10 general categories:

Illustration: Add small illustration next to each category?

● Civil heritage: houses and façades

● Community and common well-being projects: public space planning, services and public utility
buildings
● Religious heritage: religious buildings and other religious monuments
● Civil annexes: barns and other civil places and buildings with special architectural value
● Material aid: providing material for constructions, emergency interventions and restorations
● Nature: environmental and landscape protection and revitalisation
● Tourism: setting up traditional guest houses and developing responsible tourism
● Entrepreneurship: non-refundable small loans for start-up businesses
● Technical assistance: MET expertise and financial contribution
● Integrated projects: projects with high impact on community, and larger scope

Doing small things in a big way

“The continuity between all projects is one of MET's biggest strength. We have a line and we keep on walking

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by adding new projects”, stated a MET team member. This is why a Whole Village Project can be rarely
considered completed, as more than a project it is actually closer to a process. This process is continuous and
consists in the addition of interdependent different activities developed in a same place in order to achieve
sustainable results. It is the combination of different big or small activities that are gradually and simultaneously
developed, what seems to be finally improving the well-being of community members. This means that results
do not depend so much on the size of the project, but rather on their sum and continuity. Example of projects
are: the restoration of houses, bridge repairs, workshops/summer camps for children, tree planting,
organisation of festivities and village events, filling the library with books, different training courses and so on.

To illustrate this, one may imagine that when all individual projects are linked, they act as an elastic net. This
one is constantly growing in its complexity and interconnection, and holds what could be called local
sustainable development. The goal is to re-dignify and reinforce from the inside out, from the smallest to the
largest, and from the singular to the plural.

To sum up these lines, one may realise now that through revitalising local heritage, MET is actually seeking to
revitalise the communities. The concept of the Whole Village Project is just the big umbrella covering this
motto. Developing traditional skills and local entrepreneurial capabilities seek to boost a virtuous cycle in
communities where heritage conservation becomes a means for local development. “Our goal is that everyone
in a village can find its own talent and become economically independent”, as a MET team member said. At
the risk of sounding trivial, the biggest challenge throughout this equation is how to involve local villagers to
lead their own development by valuing their own local heritage. “Heritage without people is an empty heritage”,
the same MET member concluded.

Illustration: Whole Village Model Diagram (sent attached - to be redrawn)

Tourism

Following the advice of a travel writer who visited the village of Viscri in the 1990s, long before MET arrived;
some local families here took firsts steps towards developing guesthouses for receiving tourists.

From this success story, and taking into account people's interests in the village, MET sought later to include
cultural tourism as part of the WVP. This is an example of the mutual feedback that takes place between a
village and MET. In this case, the guesthouse idea came from some few families in Viscri, and it was MET who
replicated the concept and not the other way around.

Looking to copy and develop this experience, MET first bought 1 house in Viscri and then in some other villages

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to showcase traditional guesthouses for the local community members and visitors. Slowly, the initiative
expanded, and advantages were manifold. First, guesthouses restorations needed skilled craftsmen to perform
the work, which implicitly contributed to develop entrepreneurial capacities. Then, restored houses became
reference points to show people the beauty hidden under the weathered façades, what has invited others to
rebuild their houses for tourists by themselves. Finally, as guesthouses needed caretakers to look after the
tourists arriving, training courses in agro-tourism management were organised for the local population that
showed interest. Word spread and the number of visitors increased, as well as the services that were offered.
The sum ended up giving a new role to revitalising the cultural heritage, and reactivating local economy through
cultural tourism.

This is how an initiative developed by few families in Viscri bloomed into an ambitious regional cultural tourism
programme. Today, MET manages 18 guesthouses throughout Transylvania, and has trained over 57 people
in agro-tourism management and around 30 in traditional cooking. The success of these is also inspiring
community members to open their own guesthouses, and to offer services for visitors and tourists all over the
region. Besides, it has been recently designed a website to promote tourism and to allow online reservations
for all these guesthouses. “Without MET, there wouldn't be tourists here” exclaimed a smiling guesthouse
manager from the village of Alma Vii, who had also received agro-tourism management official training through
MET. Alongside this initiative, the development of other sustainable activities for tourists is also being
encouraged, such as local gastronomy, the manufacturing and sale of handicrafts, horse-cart transportation
and local tour guides. Among many benefits of MET projects, this is contributing to people realising the value
of their heritage and culture. In the words of same guesthouse manager in Alma Vii, “When tourists started
coming, we realised that our village was actually valued, not only for our churches, but also for our food, our
nature and our peace”.

ILLUSTRATION : MAP IDENTIFYING THE VILLAGES WHERE MET GUEST HOUSES ARE (TO BE
DRAWN)

Behind the scenes

As said above, the Whole Village Project concept quickly became MET’s working emblem, and its definition
formally frames almost all the entire tree of activities that MET develops in the villages. However, not every
village where MET works goes through a Whole Village Project, and not every Whole Village Project adapts
to any village.

Of the 25 villages (and 4 towns) where MET has actively worked on the revitalisation of their cultural heritage,
just 10 villages have to date undergone a full Whole Village Project process: Viscri, Criț, Richiș, Biertan, Alma

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Vii, Mălâncrav, Florești, Ștejăreni, Cloașterf and Meșendorf.

MET methods of procedure became quite strict, and implementing a Whole Village Project requires a high
level of commitment from the community and local authorities. Once a village is recognized for its potential to
host cultural heritage projects, a long process begins. This may end in a Whole Village Project or in MET
engagement to develop just some independent activities in the village.

The sequence until developing a project usually starts with meeting local representatives and discussing about
community needs and project opportunities. With the support of local authorities, actions are normally chosen
and prioritised through local community consultations, both formal and informal. Whereas formal meetings
usually take place during regular community meetings, informal ones are mostly in doorways and on the street.
People are asked to share their needs and openly express their views and concerns. With the ideas sketched
out, MET looks to conceive and design a plan to respond to the stated needs, while still fitting within MET’s
goals and authorities desires. In this regard, it is not possible to simply “copy and paste” projects, as a MET
team member pointed out, as every project is unique in spirit and form. Once written, plans, ideas and projects
need to look for funding before they become a reality. This step can take some time, but when a financial
partner is finally found, the projects are approved for implementation. They are then shared with the
community, which is invited to participate in the implementation. A local member of the community is generally
elected to lead and conduct the project in the village, and its implementation is entrusted to a local team under
the supervision of MET. Construction projects are normally implemented in the warmer season, as building
works cannot be performed during winter. Formal community meetings and training courses are usually offered
to the community in the colder season, when fields and gardens do not need tending. Finally, regular
community meetings take place to monitor and evaluate the project, and to help learn from mistakes and
replicate successes.

Illustration: MET Project Flow (sent attached - to be redrawn)

Although this is an ideal methodology designed, it is not always easy to find the ideal framework to put it into
practice. As a MET team member described “there is not one perfect time and one perfect context in which to
develop a project, so it is useless to wait for the perfect situation. We have developed a sequence of activities,
but the most important activity among them is just doing what needs to be done”. In this context, interviews
with MET team members show that there are four major challenges that become keystones in the success of
a project. These are:

1. Encouraging community participation and commitment

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2. Choosing the right community leader or local facilitator for each project
3. Having the backing of local authorities
4. Finding the right external partners to guarantee a financial support

1. Encouraging community participation and commitment

This is perhaps the biggest challenge of all of them, as encouraging community participation in projects means
making people feel the projects as if they were their own. As MET team members say, “We don't do charity,
we facilitate a rural and local development based on heritage conservation”. Commitment becomes a natural
repose when people understand the basics of the projects and the possible advantages these may have on
their daily lives. However, every community acts as an entire being. This means that even if one community
may respond with enthusiastic commitment, it does not mean that the approach can be used as a blueprint for
others. Responses are usually unpredictable and depend on multiple and complex interactions within the
village. Working with people cannot be depicted in mathematical models and equations, as human
relationships need to be experienced to be fully assessed.

In spite of this, the most successful projects are the ones in which community members take leadership. When
people believe in the actions done, people are usually fond of participating in them. It worth recalling that
projects can never be imposed on people, and that people have always the final word.

Practice shows that In order to use a participatory approach to integrate the community three progressive
stages are usually followed. These look to encourage the community’s participation and commitment in and to
the projects step by step: first is informing people about the project and receiving feedback; second, involving
people in the activities based on their skills and desires; and finally is having the projects be directly conceived
and carried out by people from the community.

People's expectations, beliefs and backgrounds may vary depending on the person and the community.
Therefore, the key to involving people in a project, regardless of their conditions and the stage of involvement,
is as simple as building empathy, a meaningful connection with them, and communicating as much as is
possible.

Connecting with people means building personal relationships, looking for positive interactions, finding
common grounds and goals, participating in shared activities, being interested about people's concerns,
making it easy for people to reach one and looking for adaptable solutions for their concerns. Connecting
means staying close, smiling, being present and friendly, adapting to different interlocutors, and paying
attention to details. It also implies being genuine and sincere, and making people feel comfortable. Connecting
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is listening to people, as well as being open, supporting, not-judgmental and encouraging.

In this sense and for instance, MET team members regularly visit or pass by the villages, and participate as
much as possible in local festivities, local events and local meetings. Given that villages in which MET works
are usually small, MET team members know where almost every villager lives, as well as their personal stories
and names by heart. There are not barriers when people want to communicate with a member of MET, as
phone lines are always open and available. A local leader representing MET can also be found as close as
some blocks away. All this allows MET to stay close to people, and to strengthen connections with them every
day.

In all cases, some steps had sometimes to be taken in order to achieve this connection and create an
atmosphere of warm partnership: walls had to be broken down and distances shortened. It is by building a true
and empathic shared feeling, a confident bond and a close relationship based on mutual respect, that the goal
of being part of the same team is achieved.

2. Choosing the right community leader or local facilitator for each project

Choosing the right community leader or a local facilitator has proven to be one of the most critical aspects for
the success of any project. The local leader for MET’s projects is not just a reference or a point of contact in
the village; he/she becomes a local partner, MET’s eyes and ears in the community, and sort of lightning rod
for both the community and the Trust. This local facilitator who is in charge of assuring the implementation and
development of a project in a village should understand the current state of affairs along with local needs and
capabilities, be able to weigh them, and understand and know how to motivate the community. Local leaders,
just like MET team members, should listen, communicate, articulate, participate and create, but from their
vantage point within the community. As a MET team member said, “they need to feel the village”.

For this reason, the process of choosing the right local leader for a project and for a whole community is, in
many cases, as important as the project itself. In this regard, the local facilitator's age, gender, and origin are
not central. Their success is dependant on their honest commitment to the community, their consonance with
MET activities, their leadership capabilities and their communication skills.

Experience has shown that when the local leader lacks the capacity to truly communicate and enthuse the
community, projects tend to be developed less consistently. People feel distant from the projects, which
translates into little involvement. To solve this, MET has been providing workshop trainings to develop and
improve leadership capabilities in people. “Local leadership needs to be developed over time. It is more often
a process than a miracle”, as member of MET team described it. These workshops seek to improve

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communication and leadership skills, and to formally frame the role of being a facilitator. The goal is to highlight
the importance of being friendly, constructive and understanding with the community, to leave ego behind, to
develop management abilities, and to enhance a sense of fairness, responsibility, and initiative in leaders.

3. Having the backing of local authorities

Having the support and accompaniment of local authorities is also vital for the implementation of any
community project. In villages where local authorities have shown little commitment and involvement, and/or
where the population mistrusts local authorities, completed projects have had low impact in the community
and achieve poorer results in terms of continuity.

A healthy relationship between MET and local authorities takes generally place when both share common
objectives, communication is transparent and their actions do not compete with each other. Both should act
as complementary institutions, as both look out for the well-being of the locals. Therefore, their activities should
be reciprocal and interdependent, but this is not always the case. This is a sensitive point, since having the
local authorities’ approval is a condition for MET's projects to be developed

Authorities’ role may vary, but it often includes formally approving projects of public interest, sensitising people
upon MET activities, conducting and encouraging community meetings and public consultation research,
attuning official programs to MET projects, issuing regulations, providing operational collaboration with other
official bodies and acting as a financial partners.

In any case, for projects to be successful, the relationship between both should always be closely collaborative,
based on mutual respect, cooperation and the acceptance of autonomy and different opinions or positions.

4. Finding the right external partners to guarantee a financial support

Every project needs funding to organise and implement the project activities, pay for salaries and services and
buy materials. In the case of an non governmental organisation, those funds may come from public or private
grants, individual or corporate donations.

Finding financial support and long-term partners, grants and donors is the last challenge.It could be compared
to a sport, as it requires know-how, training and persistence. MET relies on a variety of sources for funding the
projects, activities, salaries and other costs. Funding sources include philanthropic foundations, international
and national grants, the sale of services, private sector programmes, and private donations. In this sense,
various public, private or NGO institutions provide financing, but all have their own terms.

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The difficulty is to meet the eligibility criteria while still answering local needs. Moreover, donors and project
partners are at times reluctant to support projects if they are not partially co-financed by the applicant, which
places the burden of finding other sources of income on MET. In this way, there is constantly the need to
develop and diversify a range of partners who can provide different contributions in a same programme or
specific project.

Over the years, MET has relied on many partners, including several Romanian Ministries. While some partners
have offered sporadic financial contributions, others have faithfully accompanied MET for years, trusting MET
to make good use of its financial resources. From the onset of MET’s activities until 2009, the Packard
Humanities Institute (PHI) was MET’s key partner. As stated above, PHI’s support allowed MET to launch its
activities and put the first Whole Village Project into practice.

Another foundation, very close to MET, is the Horizon Foundation, which has also trusted MET's work since
the year 2000. Horizon has offered indispensable contributions for smaller but a high number of projects and
complementary initiatives, which are equally as important as large and costly projects. Aiming to promote
culture and identity by supporting cultural, educational, and social initiatives, Horizon’s funds contributed to
MET being able to set up a structured organisation.

Since 2009, the French hotel chain group Accor Hotels also became one of MET's most important partners as
part of its “Plant for the Planet” and “Planet 21” social and environmental responsibility programmes. These
programmes seek to plant over four million trees in 21 countries. As its Romanian partner, MET has already
planted over two million trees in collaboration with 106 local schools, town halls and forestry authorities.

Last but never least, EEA Grants should be named in this list. Its funds stem from the governments of Iceland,
Liechtenstein and Norway and are targeted at reducing economic and social disparities and strengthening
bilateral relations with Romania. Through EEA Grants, MET has been able develop big restoration projects,
like Alma VII church wall restoration.

Up-to-date MET

Romania’s 2006 entrance into the European Union opened a new window of opportunities and ways of
understanding local development. In the same year, MET's office in Sighișoara became completely functional.
After restoring a 15th. century tower from Sighișoara’s emblematic fortification, MET decided to install its
headquarters in Romania in here, between the Furriers’ and the Butchers’ Towers.

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Until 2010, projects were written in MET's offices in London, UK, but the closure of this office transferred this
responsibility to the headquarters in Romania. The branch of MET in UK continued exercising an advising and
guiding role as well as assuming a co-financing responsibility, but projects were to be thought and developed
from the office of Sighișoara. The small MET team in Romania was asked to re-design its functions,
responsibilities, and capacities.

In order to run effective projects, organisations must sometimes build and improve their internal infrastructure
and capacity to support them. Sometimes this means increasing physical infrastructure, such as buying
communication equipment, cars, or others that will ease the implementation of projects. Other times, the focus
is on improving intellectual capacity; as in learning new knowledge, and defining future goals.

MET LINE OF TIME – TO BE ILLUSTRATED – SEE DOCUMENT ATTACHED

In a context of internal reorganisation, MET performed two projects between 2010 and 2011 that aimed to
reinforce the internal structure of the Trust: a “Capacity Building” project and “Strategy Development” project,
both financed by Horizon Foundation and externally advised by the architect Léo Orellana. These two
milestones aimed to analyse and discuss how to adapt to the current Transylvanian reality, to improve MET's
effectiveness, to prepare the organisation for future challenges and to consolidate a well structured team.

Part of this process was for MET to classify and qualitatively evaluate its projects. In this way, MET determined
that between 2000 and 2011, it has carried out 1041 projects in 27 villages and five towns. This comes to
almost 100 projects per year:

Illustration: MET's Projects in numbers (2000 – 2011) (Sent attached – to be redrawn)

An integrated approach to rural development

Looking back, the initial actions undertaken by MET have first succeeded in breaking local inertia, transforming
potential into realities, emphasising local capacities and promoting internal motivation towards a sustainable
change. However, as MET advanced in the revitalisation of local communities, the reality, the needs and the
scope of the projects became more extensive and complex, so their results. Even if today's MET members
agree that “small projects are the biggest, as they have sometimes the biggest impact on people’s daily life”,
small individual projects have progressively been replaced by other projects with a greater integrated vision,
and long-term results on the community.

In this context, even if MET's initial goal was only to improve local livelihoods, experience is showing that the
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interplay between big and small projects is capable of boosting local development. The conclusion is that rural
development begins where all projects converge.

A local development process is about people and the way people live, rather than about objects, things or
services given to them. Fostering development is a right not directly connected to sums of money, as these do
not ensure happiness nor quality of life. Development is improving people’s lives, their deep well-being and
what they share as a community. It is improving people's opportunities, and offering people the capacity to
choose and decide for themselves. Development is freedom and empowering communities equitably. Hence,
development should be understood as a dynamic process based on mutual understanding, equitable
participation and respectful creation.

From this, all projects developed are gradually adding dimensions to integral rural development, and
contributing to happier lives for people. This development is not only linked to the actions undertaken and their
results, but also to the spirit behind them. To explain this further, in everything MET does, there is a full spirit
seeking to integrate community, to boost its creativity, and to set off a cascade of follow-up actions. Sometimes
it is not the restoration of an isolated bridge that promotes rural development, but the sum of all bridges
restored, the fact the people may not need to dirty their shoes to cross the stream anymore, and the process
through which each bridge is restored, integrating the entire community with a shared objective.

Illustration: The social impact of MET's projects in numbers (2000 – 2011) (Sent attached – to be redrawn)

In the path to sustainability

By encouraging organisational focus through internal discussions, the follow-up assessment of these projects
has analysed MET’s potential and established concrete and practical strategies for the following years.

Based on the experience lived, and also looking to explain the essence of MET's existence, community self-
sustainability has formally been identified as the very core of MET concerns and projects. In this context,
connection and learning together became the institutional methods with which to look to this self-sustainability
horizon.

MET activities and sustainability approach (illustrate the list in chart form?)

1. Assessing existing and potential heritage village development

2. Meeting with the community and local councils and ensuring their support
3. Identifying local needs, possible projects and project managers within the community
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4. Project team training with MET and within the local community
5. Training in traditional building techniques, crafts and agro-tourism
6. Carrying out physical architectural works
7. Developing environmental protection activities
8. Holding community meetings and social integration works
9. Initiating and developing small rural enterprises
10. Carrying out educational projects with youth and children
11. Putting other community development projects into practice

Even if heritage restoration continues to be MET's main focus, a more multidisciplinary approach will from now
on be put in practice. Within this, and in order to enlarge its activities inside the community, MET has sought
to fully integrate children and educational programmes into the Whole Village Project.

As a first outcome with a Romanian Ministry of Culture Grant, children from Mălâncrav, Archita and Sighișoara
were invited in 2012 to learn more about their local heritage and share their views through a theatre play with
the rest of the community. In 2014, a summer camp was organised in the village of Alma Vii to bring children
together with artisans from Laslea, Bunești and Moșna. Each year this initiative is repeated, and children from
different villages have the opportunity to live the experience. With the objective of creating connections among
children and showing them traditional hand-craft arts, children are taught pottery, weaving, painting and other
techniques. With this same scope, the project “little architect” has sought to bring children closer to architecture,
as these were asked to recognise the subjectivities of their surrounding space of living.

In line with an increased focus on social activities rather than the restoration of buildings, the project
“Multicultural Motor of Sustainable Development” (MultiCulti) was initiated in 2014. It has also sought
to integrate adults and children from six villages under one umbrella: the reduction of economic and
social disparities between different ethnic groups and the integration of children into this concern. It
promoted professional training sessions, civil activities, volunteer actions and healthcare workshops
in Biertan, Richiș, Copșa Mare, Alma Vii, Moșna and Nemșa. Through encouraging heritage
safeguarding, the project sought to strengthen ties and connections among the participants, to
develop professional skills and to increase the sense of community belonging. The “Economic
Opportunities for Multi-ethnic Villages” project has also aimed to raise awareness of the local
communities, especially in Archita, Mălâncrav and Viscri by focusing on building self-confidence. It
included activities such as meetings, workshops, entrepreneurship courses, and other trainings in
order to inspire the local manufacturing of traditional and marketable products.

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In partnership with the Accor French group, MET has aimed to reforest eroded lands in the region
and involve children and educational institutions. These projects were “An Oak for Each Pupil”
(2009), “A Forest for Each School” (2009-2013) and "Plant for the Planet" (2013-2015). About two
million trees have been already planted, four school orchards were revitalised, and 106 schools, 23
municipalities and 28 forest centres have participated in the projects. These environmental projects
are another step to foster change towards rural sustainability in the region.

The team

Today, a team of 15 professionals with varied experience in implementing projects collaborate with
over 50 specialists such as architects, restoration specialists, engineers, biologists and sociologists
in several communities.

“Working in MET is much more than a job, it is a lifestyle”, said one of them. In this sense, the
experience gained has also helped shaping a certain character and certain abilities, which
characterise MET today. No matter the type of project developed, these abilities become part of an
institutional and team toolbox, and they are used, tested and constantly improved.

ILLUSTRATION: TOOLBOX IN A SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH (TO ILLUSTRATED AS A

TOOLBOX)

● Inspire and create

● Understand the whole and the details
● Implement and develop
● Listen and communicate
● Receive and give
● Increase, decrease, and balance an influence
● Learn, grow and evolve
● Adapt and stay positive

Even if the MET office in Sighișoara is continually busy, the ambiance is still warm and cheerful, it
smells of old wood and tea, and team members seem to have always some time to meet and discuss

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together about projects. All team members are enthusiastic and dedicated: “here, there is always
something different to do, you will never get bored”, they like to say. Without a doubt, there is a true
vocational spirit that has brought them here. As one of them stated: “It is not only about doing the
work right, but doing the right work”. They speak patiently, and they are kind and humble. “Everything
we do, we do it for people, our biggest desire is to make people happier”, said another one of them.

In the next room, Caroline usually leaves the door of her office open when she answers the phone.
Her phone is always ringing; whether it is the ambassador of a country, a tourist visiting the region,
a person from a community, a local craftsman or just someone with an idea, she answers smiling,
and speaks kindly and honestly. As time has passed, her responsibilities have grown with the
organisation, meaning she had to learn to differentiate between urgent and important, to manage
emotions and decisions, and to lead the change in many Transylvanian communities. However, her
internal force, love for Transylvania, and the passion she puts into her work did nothing but grow.

Almost 20 years have passed since the first encounter between Caroline and Jessica, and some
less since MET Romania was founded. MET has enjoyed its successes and learned from its failures.
But after such a long trip, everyone who has dreamt together with or placed their trust in MET, should
be proud of knowing that a lady from Viscri stated: “we are here and we are all together today partly
thanks to MET. And now, all of us, all together, we are all MET.”

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Viscri
Deutsch Weißkirch - Szászfehéregyháza
MET's hometown

To a visitor's eyes, Viscri represents a paradise in the sense of timeless harmony, a place where a
state of peace constantly prevails, along with a quiet happiness, and an humble prosperity. Viscri
seems a rural built utopia, in the sense that everything is home-made and community experienced.
This feeling is, at moments, capable of transferring one's mind into an imaginary rural Arcadia.
However, far away from medieval fairy-tale representations, Viscri is a rural village, with real people
looking to solve everyday problems yet experiencing real improvements in their well-being.

Illustration: Plan of Viscri

Despite the appearances, Viscri has not always been as pleasant as described above, and neither
it is the recreation of a lost medieval paradise, as many dare describe it. For most of its history, Viscri
was a remote, highly agrarian and rather poor village. But within the span of 20 years, Viscri became
a modest icon of rural development in Transylvania. Without losing its internal soul, Viscri has
evolved into an example of self-sustained economic recovery, mostly based on the revitalisation of
its cultural heritage. Viscri has turned into a worldwide highlight, a must-see for tourists visit
Transylvania and a national magnet for new inhabitants looking for fresh air outside the cities.
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“The centre of Romania”31

Around year 1400, Viscri appeared in documents with the name of Alba ecclesia, which lately was
changed to the Saxon name Weißkirch. Both translate to “white church”. Hidden between hills and
in deep valleys, its white fortified church towers over the village. “It is a simple church, for simple
people”, as they say while smiling in Viscri. The first references to Viscri's settlement date back to
the same 15th century, where the Saxon village is mentioned in documents as belonging to the
catholic clerical congregation of the village of Rupea. At around 1500, the village was described as
a free village with 51 household owners, one teacher, three shepherds and two paupers. 32
Throughout medieval times and up until the 20th century, Viscri was poor, disadvantaged by its
distance from larger villages and roads in a rather infertile area called Haferland (which translates to
“oat land”), where oats could be planted rather than more profitable wheat or wine. This can be seen
in the simplicity of the houses. While they are organised following a characteristic Saxon linear
pattern, their decorations are sparse compared with wealthier villages.

Viscri's imposing fortified white church embellishes its surroundings. Originally built around 1100 by
the Hungarian Szecklers, the church was taken over by the Saxons who settled in the area in the
12th century at the behest of the King of Hungary. In the 14th century the eastern part of the church
was rebuilt. In 1525, the first fortifications with a wall and towers were added. In the 18 th century,
after having converted to Lutheranism around 1560, the church was enclosed by a second defensive
wall. Both walls still stand today, attracting tourists from all over the world. Around the same time,
Romanians formally settled in the village, and the Romanian quarter took shape to the west of the
village. An Orthodox church was also built not far from the Lutheran one.

PHOTO CHURCH

As in much of Transylvania, up until the mid-20th century most of the population were farmers and
craftsmen. Viscri's local economy was simple but multidimensional. It relied on seasonal harvests,
local livestock and handicrafts. Behind every house was a cobbled courtyard and a strip of vegetable

31 How Viscri's villagers call the village, as it is approximately situated at the country's geographical centre
32 Institutul National al Patrimoniului, 2010
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plots and arable lands, meaning every family could feed and clothe itself. However, World War II had
a radical effect on the village and, as already said, on Transylvania overall. As described above,
many Saxon families were divided by war and the ensuing deportation to labour camps in the USSR.
Lands were confiscated or nationalised and entrepreneurial activities no longer allowed. Most of
Viscri's population lost its previously close links to community activities, agricultural processes and
handicraft production. Later, after 1990 the village lost most of its Saxon population. Of the 300
Saxons that had inhabited in the village in 1989 (of a total population of 600 people), only 68 decided
to stay in 1990. The Saxon neighbourhood associations in Viscri disbanded, and with them, the
management of the community's everyday organisation fell apart. The white church lost its
congregation, many houses were abandoned, sold, occupied by new people or locked as summer
houses. The remaining mixed population fought against emptiness, depopulation and
unemployment. There was no visible place for caring about cultural heritage and the economy was
stuck in reverse.

25 years later, Viscri became a flourishing village of 420 inhabitants in the municipality of Bunești in
the county of Brașov. Approximately 300 of these current inhabitants are of Roma origin, 100 are
culturally Romanian and 15 are the Saxons that remain.33 Only three families continue to depend on
social aid, significantly fewer than 10 or 15 years ago. Getting to Viscri continues to be an experience
in itself, given the fact that there is no asphalt road to connect the main routes to the village, and the
rural roads twist between herds of animals and old oak trees. This isolation has contributed to
recreating a landscape hardly changed from former times. Viscri continues to be a small village, old
buildings are at its core, and it is still deeply immersed in its natural environment. Days are serene
and nights are long and silent, air is pure and one can hear the echo of one's footsteps when walking
down the main stone road, which is framed by colourful and well maintained traditional Saxon
houses. It is easy to feel at home here, as it feels cosy and serene.

Streets are the place of meetings. Depending on the time of the day, dogs, ducks and pedestrians
gather, seemingly occupying the space in turn. Nightfall holds Viscri's biggest spectacle, namely
animals returning from the pastures find their houses on their own. Their owners just wait in the
streets for them, with their doors open.

33 Municipality of Bunesti, 2011

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As in many other places in Transylvania, the villagers appear to share a timid nostalgic happiness,
again this smooth Dor feeling. Though less present than in other villages, vague and fragmented,
years of social improvements seem not to be able to erase it. It sometimes displays itself dancing to
a lively music on a Saturday evening, and some other times it stays quiet all day sitting on a street
bench.

“Be happy with what you have, and do not aspire to other riches; be balanced in your desires and
in sadness”
Inscription embroidered in a wall carpet in Viscri

Viscri is not a village like any other. Even if its past and cultural heritage may be similar to others in
the region, its present and future perspectives differ in terms of its mutual community understanding,
its people's pride for the village, and a general sense of fulfilment. Certainly, there is much still to be
improved, but after year 2000 Viscri seems to have separated from its past to write a new and
different chapter of its own history, one defined by its cooperation with MET.

Viscri and MET, growing together

MET and Viscri have long and rich ties. If Viscri has inspired MET from its very beginnings, it also
represents the village where projects have been incubated and first developed. Over the years, Viscri
and MET have developed a symbiotic relationship in which they evolve together and learn from each
other.

There is one detail, however, that makes of Viscri a particularly special village with regard to MET.
This detail has catalysed the understanding between both parties, and is the main reason why MET
decided to start its activities in this village rather than in any other. This detail goes by the name of
Caroline Fernolend.

Viscri is the village where Caroline and her husband Walter were born and raised. Needless to say,
both decided to stay when communism fell, with Caroline going on to become the only woman on
the local council, on which she sat for 20 years. Viscri is also where Jessica and Caroline first met.
And finally, as Caroline lived there, it is in Viscri where MET decided to symbolically install its first
representation in Romania in year 2000, which became an official office in 2004, again under
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Caroline's local coordination. There is an undeniable connection between Caroline, Viscri and the
community; and this long time connection is at the base of their mutual understanding.

The first projects developed in Viscri started in 2000, and the positive impact they are having today
on people's lives have exceeded many expectations. From MET’s perspective, Viscri is MET’s first
seed sown, and Viscri's unforeseen revitalisation has become MET's first harvested fruit.

However, MET was not the first institution to recognise the value of Viscri's cultural heritage. Through
the Alba Eglesia foundation and in partnership with the municipality of Büllingen in Belgium, the
school and the village hall were rehabilitated between 1993-1996, and a telephone system for the
whole village was installed in 1996. The Soros foundation also paved the road to the church with
cobblestones, fixing the village stream. In 1998, travel guide routard first mentioned Viscri as a place
to visit in Romania. Finally, in 1999, both the Romanian government and UNESCO declared Viscri's
fortified church and entire built patrimony (48 ha), which were mostly forgotten and derelict at the
time, to be a protected site.

The seven villages included under the same category of protection in Transylvania were assessed
externally and awarded for their historical characteristics: places dominated by fortified churches,
which illustrate building styles from the 13th to the 16th century (…), which have a specific land-use
system, settlement pattern, and organisation of the family farmstead that have been preserved since
the late Middle Ages.34 This last designation became the starting point from which MET set out to
protect Viscri’s buildings and looked to re-signify its cultural heritage. However, taking a too nostalgic
view of medieval times would do nothing for the local reality. A balance between community desires
and heritage conservation needed first to be found, as the non-Saxon majority population was
suddenly charged with safekeeping a Saxon heritage that was not necessary felt as their own.

In 2000, when MET Romania was founded, it immediately focused on the challenge of achieving
harmony in conserving Viscri's heritage, modern ways of life and the different interests, values and
traditional views in the village. At the same time, the hope was that boosting Viscri's economy and
tackling local needs would go a long way towards achieving this harmony.

34 UNESCO, 1999
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As a member of the community, Caroline's presence paved the way to put MET's first Whole Village
Project in motion in Viscri. As stated above, the first actions were guided by a mix of intuition and
generosity, and especially, by Caroline's experiences in Viscri. MET’s first years were marked by a
bit of disorder, but MET’s board members had placed their trust in Caroline. The board in the UK
needed someone capable of leading locally, and Caroline needed someone external to support the
activation of Viscri's revitalisation. Without her local knowledge and contacts, MET could not have
taken its decisions so intuitively. Without Jessica and the board’s support, she would not have had
the opportunity to lead this change in Viscri.

The initial objective was, as said, to uplift the village's self-image after a decade of decay. MET’s
board members were particularly interested in conserving Saxon heritage; and Caroline was mainly
concerned in how best to conserve this heritage and local traditions while involving the current local
population, and reviving a self-sufficient economy.

Many of the first projects aimed to restore façades, barns, the white church and other public
buildings. Experts came from England and gave people free training courses in traditional masonry
techniques. However, MET’s presence was not automatically accepted by the community. As said,
people were sceptical of a foreign organisation’s presence in Viscri and MET’s lack of experience,
as well as the innovative character of the projects, failed to initially gain people’s trust. In this context,
Caroline’s conviction in terms of MET and the villagers were fundamental to connect both. “At first I
didn't believe it, but Caroline and MET finally convinced us to open our eyes. We suspected we had
cultural values in here, but I admit I didn't know that there were so many. I'm proud now every time
I have the opportunity to keep an old tradition alive”, said a craftsman from Viscri who was living in
Germany 10 years ago. Little by little, when façades were repaired and locals from all cultural groups
began to receive training and work, acceptance began to grow in the village.

Of the experts, architect Gabriel Lambescu mentioned before stood out. Even today, when craftsmen
are asked about their training course experience, 10 or 15 years ago, most of them nostalgically
highlight the important role Gabriel had in them. “He taught me everything I know about plastering
techniques”, said the same craftsman from the village who runs today his own business.

Restoring buildings to restore a community

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Between 2000 and 2011 about 200 of the 345 projects carried out in Viscri focused on the
rehabilitation of civil heritage and barns, and setting up guest houses. That also means that over half
of all the village's buildings have been restored or rehabilitated to some extent.35 Similarly, almost
half of the local population was involved and benefiting directly or indirectly from the implementation
of MET’s projects.

Illustration: MET projects in Viscri (2000 – 2015) (sent attached – to be redrawn)

Restoring the majority of the façades of the village centre required a steady stream of materials,
such as stones and sand, but also tiles, bricks, iron, oak and pine pieces. However, at the time most
of the works commenced no production facilities existed in the village, as most of the craftsmen had
emigrated or abandoned their workshops. To address this first issue, British restoration expert Colin
Richards brought in 2006 his team to Viscri to build a tile and brick kiln.

A kiln was built at the place where the best clay was found, and the management of this kiln was
entrusted to Gheorghe Lascu (widely known as Gheorghită). Gheorghită is a local villager who was
living in Hungary at the time, to where he had emigrated seeking better work opportunities. In his
own words, “I had no idea how to make tiles, but Caroline told me that my grandfather used to be
the brick maker of the village, thus I couldn't say no to the proposal of coming back to Viscri”. On
arrival, Colin gave him a training course in the traditional techniques of brick and tile production, and
he was entrusted with an equipped kiln and the premises next to the kiln for him to build a home.
Today, his bricks and tiles supply Viscri and the surrounding villages; he continues to live next to kiln
with his family.

In a similar way, two blacksmiths, the Gabor brothers, and their grandfather Maty have been
encouraged to reopen their traditional smithies in Viscri. “Without MET this occupation would have
already disappeared in Viscri”, said one of them. The rising demand to produce hinges for windows
and doors had led to assignments for the two brothers and their grandfather. Additionally, they
received assistance to equip their workshop and revive their activity. As the brothers described it
themselves, ‘‘MET gave us the chance to continue our grandfather's work, and without MET we
would probably be gone. We are very proud of what we do, we are the only blacksmiths in Viscri and

35 Dinu, 2012
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we love living here.”

Both these projects are not just picturesque happenings; they have contributed to creating a local
chain of production and supply, and thus employment in the village. Furthermore, training courses
focused on traditional restoration techniques have also helped building a labour niche that was
previously missing. A local craftsman recalled his experience with MET as follows: “I didn't have a
job and then MET taught me some restoration techniques. It was a great opportunity to be able to
learn a skill. I've worked in the restoration of many houses here in Viscri, I've even worked in Prince
Charles' house restoration work. Now I'm teaching a boy from Bunești to follow my path”. Services
connected to heritage restoration, using traditional techniques and materials, became a valued
source of employment in the village and in the region. This is benefiting the local economy
entrepreneurship and is raising locals’ dignity.

“Das Leben ist ein Seil der Hoffnung”

Life is a rope of hope
Sara Wagner, Viscri

Rural tourism development

Even if few visitors came to Viscri for touristic reasons 20 years ago, Viscri has nowadays become
an centre of cultural interest, attracting visitors from all over the world. “Before there weren't good
conditions for tourists to come here, but in the past 5 or 6 years everything has changed. Tourists
are coming and this is a very good sign for us: they bring job opportunities and fresh ideas. We are
much more open since tourists began coming”, said a couple who owns their own guest house in
the central road.

Visitors are interested about Viscri's history, architecture and natural environment, and upon their
departure, they mostly highlight the traditional food, people's warmth, and the village’s serene aura.
“Tourists come once and then they keep coming because our village is special, it is different, it is
beautiful”, said Mariana Purghel, another guesthouse owner. As described above, Viscri is the first
village where MET has bought houses to rehabilitate them into their traditional aspect to receive
tourists, and to inspire other community members do the same. Three guest houses are currently
managed by MET in Viscri, yet the plan worked out so well that other sixteen guesthouses are

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currently in operation in Viscri, managed by other villagers36. Eugen, one guesthouse owner said:
“We started this business from an opportunity. MET gave us the idea of arranging rooms for tourists
and we said, why not? We started with one room, then other one and every year we build another
one.”

These guesthouses became also the opportunity for visitors to learn about local traditional style of
living. Houses are restored using traditional materials, techniques and furniture, and the food that is
offered is cooked following traditional recipes. “The tea here always has three ingredients: mint for
the heart, St. John's-wort for the brain and coneflower to heal the stomach. We learnt that from the
Saxons”, said Eli, one of the best cooks in Viscri.

The 15 families that own guesthouses and 120 available beds, however, appear to be insufficient to
put up the rising number of tourists arriving in the village. In 2000, about 400 tourists visited the white
church; yet thanks to the tourist promotion this number reached 10,000 visitors in 2008, 17,000 in
2014, 32,000 in 2015 and 34,000 in 2016. Viscri is now part of most Transylvanian tourist circuits.
With a population of 420 inhabitants, this amounts yearly visitors to almost 80 times the local
population.

Tourism became an important source of income for many families, as it is estimated that 80% of the
visitors coming to Viscri purchase some services from the locals. However, the growing number of
tourists is becoming increasingly controversial in the community. Viscri's infrastructure is not
prepared for such an influx and the massive arrival of visitors, which may also annoy some who
enjoy living in a quiet village. The increasing economic possibilities have also led to real estate
speculation, with outsiders seeking to buy houses to convert them into guest houses or other touristic
venues.

Tourist promotion in the village was such a success that MET sees the current number of tourists in
the limit of surpassing the village's capacity, with any increase detrimental to the village, despite any
efforts to make it sustainable. Thus, MET is seeking to promote the development of tourism
infrastructure in other villages in the region. That should help tourists and tour operators realise that
there is much more than Viscri, and, naturally, create economic opportunities in other villages.

36 Corsale A. and Iorio M., 2014

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However, despite Caroline's double role, the decision regarding continuing to develop the tourist
activities is one that must be taken by the community, not by MET. The decision rests entirely, as it
always should, in the hands of the local population, while MET’s function is merely to accompany
the village in the decision making process.

Viscri as Royal's residence

In 2006, one of MET's houses, house number 163, was given to HRH the Prince of Wales in gratitude
for his support as a long-term patron of MET. Actually, the restoration of this house had begun in
2000 to improve the living conditions of a 90-year-old Saxon woman and last resident house. Sadly,
she was never able to enjoy the finished results, as she passed away in 2003. In the same year, her
heirs sold the almost finished restored house to MET, who decided to give it to HRH the Prince of
Wales. In turn, the Prince decided to donate to MET de value of the house and to use the restored
house for his own enjoyment, renting it out also as a guesthouse when not staying there.

In this way, Viscri became a royal residence, which has contributed to the recognition and protection
of its cultural heritage and to the promotion of sustainable tourism in the village and in the area.
Motivated by a romantic image of the village, which the Prince described as “a rural idyll long lost in
Britain”, his presence has drawn international attention to Transylvania and Viscri in particular. Many
press articles and contributions to travel guides and blogs have been written on the subject, and this
has helped visitors from Romania and abroad to discover the place, its history, its people, and its
heritage. Moreover, as curious it may seem, Prince Charles' attachment to the village also provides
a seal of approval that facilitates finding support for other communal development projects.

“The key thing about Romania, and Transylvania in particular, is that there’s so much we can learn
from. It is the last corner of Europe where you see true sustainability and complete resilience, and
the maintenance of an entire ecosystems to the benefit of mankind and also for nature.”
Prince Charles, 2013

However, perhaps one of the most important consequences, is that Price Charles' interest in Viscri
has also triggered both local and regional pride and awareness about the value of Transylvanian
cultural heritage. His presence and words are changing people’s perception of the region, at home
and abroad. As the school professor Ionel Sotropa from the commune of Moșna has described it:
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“Prince Charles came here to open everyone's eyes. Now we are much more aware that we have a
valuable heritage and that we should to take care of it. I'm not speaking only about the churches, but
all our multicultural heritage”. Locally speaking, when people in Viscri realised that their village had
gained international recognition, they also began appreciating the village themselves. In the words
of the local blacksmith, it happened as follows: “in the beginning, when we learned that the Prince of
England was moving here, we didn't believe it. Then we realised that it was not only the truth, but
that our village was also an important village. We live in the place where the prince chooses to spend
his holiday!”.

The sewage treatment plant

As MET’s first Whole Village Project, Viscri has seen major changes. This has led the Trust to
progressively move from focusing on the form to improving the content. Meanwhile, its activities in
Viscri went beyond heritage revitalisation and economic development, seeking to contribute to
general well-being by improving local infrastructure.

Among them, MET has contributed building an ecological wastewater treatment plant for the village
in 2011. The project sought to provide a community service, which was needed, and to solve in
addition this need through an ecological approach as its highest priority. The wastewater treatment
plant does not need any electricity, as reeds and bacteria purify the wastewater. This translates into
little costs for the Town Hall and for the community in Viscri. The wastewater treatment plant was
opened by HRH the Prince of Wales, who stated in his inauguration speech: “I hope that this project
will benefit the community for many years to come and that other communities will follow you.”37
Upon the wastewater treatment plant’s completion, the Buneşti municipal government took it over,
continuing to provide villagers with this service. Unfortunately, other villages are yet to follow suit
with similar initiatives.

The Viscri's dream

Viscri became a source of both inspiration and self-questioning in the region. It has the admiration
of many surrounding villages, which see in Viscri a model to follow. “People from around come to
Viscri to see that change is possible”, said Caroline. Some villagers in Criț dream of having as many

37 Nineoclock – online source, 2011

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tourists as in Viscri; and in Alma Vii, they say they wish their community was as united as the one in
Viscri. Many of the stories told about Viscri sound almost mythical. However, what people say about
Viscri, and particularly how they say it, is helping to awaken the desire for increased well-being in
their own villages. It creates, motivates and catalyses imagination and creativity, a good beginning
in any context. It helps people realise that change is possible, that a different or even better life is
possible, that emigration is not inevitable, that heritage revitalisation can help build places where to
live and sources of employment, and that this revitalisation may also help people gain significance
from their space and unify as a community. Finally, it makes people realise that if all this is happening
some kilometres away, the same could happen in their villages.

“High spirits often arise from need”

Mihai Eminescu

Despite the success stories, projects in Viscri are accompanied by similar complications as
elsewhere. Disagreements bay be bound to arise when a project is being developed in a community.
However, Viscri differs from other villages in that these issues are usually handled and solved with
the involvement of the community. “Here there are problems, as everywhere else, but we are united.
It is only because we are united, that we can solve any problem”, said Gheorghită, the brick maker.

Unlike other villages, people in Viscri have learned to act cohesively an unusual sense of community
in the region today. “In Viscri no one steals, doors are open and we trust each other”, said a local
farmer. “MET has helped us come together”, Mariana Purghel added. Locals said this cohesion and
trust was partly nurtured by MET’s confidence, support and equal treatment of all. Caroline has
helped iron out tensions, facilitate communication and mediate conflicts. In an analogy to its white
church, Viscri’s newfound sense of cohesion is like a human fortress. As Gheorghita said: “In Viscri,
we have a big heart, we are all close, and when we get angry, because we get angry a lot, we cross
paths in the street, we speak, and we forgive each other. We are all together here, so what would
be the sense of fighting with each other?”

People's own initiatives

It seems that this mix of community connection and social entrepreneurship is what is contributing

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to the development of Viscri.

In this context, another indirect result of MET's work in Viscri is the development of community
initiatives independent of MET. MET team members often say, “Our most sincere goal is that people
won't need us in the future”. As if responding directly to this desire, three associations have been
founded by community members in the past years in Viscri. These these associations are the
women's association “Viscri Începe”, the animal owners association “Agro-eco Viscri-Weisskirch”
and the informal Horse-cart owners and drivers’ association. The existence of these associations
shows a mutual commitment towards advancing as a community and the will to unite to face
adversities. They have grown by themselves, with MET providing only advice and encouragement.

The women's “Viscri Începe” association (what translates into “Viscri Starts”) consists in a group of
approximately 80 to 90 women from Viscri who have joined together in 1999 to produce and sell
woven, knitted items and felted slippers to visitors and abroad. Advised by other external specialists,
they make felt and woollen socks, hats and other accessories, which they sell together and share
the profits. They spend time together, teaching each other techniques and providing encouragement.
In addition, one of their leaders, Mariana Purghel, goes to other villages to assist other women to
follow suit. “I've became responsible for the women's association and I'm in charge of the communal
kitchen. I do a lot, but I wouldn't do all this if I didn't love it!”, she said with optimism. For women with
few economic resources, this association provides an opportunity to improve their incomes, a space
to gather, discuss and become stronger, and a source of inspiration.

In 2014, the animal owners or farmers’ association started their own initiative independent of MET.
Their first goal was to give everyone the opportunity of raising their own cattle. This project involved
Irish farmers donating 31 cows to their less wealthy counterparts in Viscri. The cows arrived by plane,
earning them the local moniker of "flying cows". One condition placed on the families receiving a cow
was that they had to pledge to donate the first born calf to another family, which in turn pledged to
do the same and so on. This way, this initiative not only contributed to revitalise cattle raising, but
also helped people unify around a mutual cause.

People from Viscri started coming back to their agricultural roots, as livestock has increased in the
last years. As a local farmer described the process “we have always been a village of farmers, it is

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not only what we do the best, but also what we like the best”. The animal owners association “Agro-
eco Viscri-Weisskirch” include most livestock owners in Viscri, each owning from 2 to 40 animals
(“flying cows” owners and others). Creating such an association meant overcoming suspicions
caused by the forced collectivisation of communist times, as Daniel Tabarcea, the association's
president puts it, “it was necessary to overcome the past if we wanted to continue living as farmers
in the present”. With this aim, 56 families founded the association owning 321 cows, 986 sheep, 86
goats and 46 horses under its auspices in 2015. The primary objectives for creating this association
was to become stronger when acting as a group, to maintain and increase the livestock and to rent
communal pasture lands. The pasture lands were rented according to the number of animals owned,
which is normally greater when small farmers are associated.

Through joining forces, livestock owners in Viscri can now share pastures, defend their land rights
as a group and improve their market position. To date, this association has negotiated better prices
for their products and succeeded in receiving larger communal pastures from the local authorities.
“We have to fight every day to improve our conditions, but we do it”, added Daniel. Its success is
visible in the animals seen all around the village; a view less common in other villages where keeping
livestock seems non-lucrative.

Finally, the Horse-cart owners and drivers’ association was informally established in 2014. In the
words of its leader, Imre Zsiga, “Caroline suggested that I do this. In the beginning I thought she was
crazy, but then I realised it was actually a good idea.” By 2015, the association was formed by 14
men who joined together to provide horse-cart tours around the village for tourists. The association
works in the high season, taking advantage of the carts they already use for agricultural purposes,
such as transporting hay or other crops. “The rule is that we are responsible and clean. We carry out
many inspections ourselves”, Imre added. Today, they offer nine tourist tours around the village, with
around 5,000 visitors taking part each year. “We would like the future to be just as it is today”, he
continued. The activity is being encouraged by MET, which assumes an advisory role when the
association requests it. This is another example of economic reactivation; a group of people,
confident in themselves, gathers together to maximise their opportunities as a community.

Final words

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Overall, MET's members are satisfied with Viscri's evolution, even if they realise that there are many
improvements yet to be done. From looking after Viscri's façades to participating in almost all areas
of community interest, Viscri has allowed MET to learn while projects were implemented. In this
context, people's patience has played an important role, because it has given MET the possibility to
improve along the way while gaining experience. Viscri’s gratitude towards MET shows in the
villagers’ pride, their new initiatives and the general sense of well-being. Almost the entire village is
fully employed, with only three families depending on welfare.

Currently, MET is gradually seeking to reduce its presence in Viscri. “It is a very emotional moment
when one realises that people don't need you anymore”, said a MET team member. The three
associations created in the last years and the increasing numbers of guest houses every year are
clear indicators of a growing empowerment and deep-seated changes. Most villagers are now proud
of their heritage, seem motivated to create new job opportunities and creatively forge strategies to
improve their general well-being. When talking to the villagers, one has the impression that they
have understood and value what MET is really about: “MET has arrived here to build hope, not just
façades. And it has rebuilt both”, someone said in a cobbled street.

Lessons learned by MET, from its experience in Viscri (written in hand-writing style)

● Trust is capable of building bonds between members in the community, and between MET
and the community.

● Communication is the foundation of all relationships of trust.

● Visible efforts are more effective than powerful speeches.

● Every project serves as source of inspiration for new ones.

● Heritage is from and for all the community. A community should be treated as a complete
entity.

● There are no people without heritage. Everyone has its own and its shared heritage.

● It takes patience to see long-term results.

● Boosting traditional economic activities is much more sustainable than only boosting
touristic services, even if the latter can also be a source of income.

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● It is important to help maintain transparent economic relationships inside the community.

● Local entrepreneurship requires guidance and time to develop.

● Finding and accessing funds is difficult, so these have to be spent on projects that can
significantly improve people's well-being.

● People should be accompanied in their process of decision-making, not forced to take any
certain path.

● Small quarrels between people are inevitable in a small village, but transparent and
equitable communication can reduce them.

● Connecting with people is the key to effective communication.

● Clear communication and community meetings are crucial to strengthening community

cohesion.

● It is important to keep written records of everything said and done.

● Choosing the right local leader is important for the correct development of any project in a
village.

● Benefits to the community come only when the entire community is active, connected and
when healthy exchanges between their members take place.

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Mălâncrav
Malmkrog - Almakerek
The apple's core

The village of Mălâncrav is an atypical village for many reasons. Firstly because until the 19th century
the village was not a free village, as it belonged to the Apafi family from the Transylvanian Hungarian
nobility; secondly, because the village acquired a particular high level of wealth in the region due
again to this nobility's presence; and finally, because during the exodus of the early 1990s, a high
number of Saxon families decided to stay, making Mălâncrav one of the villages with the largest
Saxon population today.

Illlustration: Map of Mălâncrav (sent attached – to be redrawn)

Mălâncrav is an animated village in the Laslea commune, in the Sibiu County, connected to the main
national road by 13 km of asphalt bordered by green slopes. With almost 1200 inhabitants, where
200 of them are of Saxon origin and 400 are children, the village has one of the highest proportions
of Saxons as well as one of the highest populations under the age of 18.38 Romanians represent the
majority of the population as 46% of the village inhabitants, while the Roma speaking represent

38 Information provided by Laslea Hall Town, 2015

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about 40%.39 Until some years ago there was just one only remaining person of Hungarian origin,
the holder of the Catholic Church key.

The residents of Mălâncrav seem active and permanently in motion. The village today is full of trees,
small bicycles and people chatting. A stream runs through the village, flanked by old tractors and
grassy banks populated with ducks and geese. When strolling through the streets, the air smells of
apples, the stream sounds like children’s playing and an orchard, a church, and a large pink manor
house situated uphill punctuate the landscape. In the late afternoon, just as in Viscri, a long
procession of cows followed closely by cowherds amble homewards. Conversations are warm and
streets are lively.

The Hungarian name of the village, Almakerek, translates to “round apple”, alluding to the tradition
of growing this fruit in the area. The village's ties to the land could hardly be stronger, easily
recognisable in the decorations on façades and in traditional festivities. Long ago, a three-field crop
rotation system was common in which cereals were grown on a field, then root vegetables and finally
the land lay fallow in the third year. Some farmers still continue this practice to this day.

The village was first mentioned in documents in 1305, where it is described to have been founded
about 100 years earlier. Around 1340, the entire Saxon village and its surroundings became the
property of the Hungarian Apafi family, who ruled, lodged and hunted in this manor until the 17 th
century. At this point, the Bethlen family, another Hungarian noble family related to Apafi line,
inherited the village. However, before disappearing from the history books, the Apafi family built
Mălâncrav’s fortified church in the 14th century as a Romanesque basilica. Already at the time of
construction, this one was one of the most ornate churches in the area. Built as a Catholic church,
its interior contains the largest and most thematically complete Gothic frescoes as well as one of the
oldest complete altars in its original location in Transylvania. Most of these pieces were donated by
the Apafi family, making the church an outstanding artistic achievement in the region. During the
Reformation in 1550, the church converted to Lutheranism, but as the village was still ruled by
catholic Hungarians, the frescoes were not painted over and remain visible to this day. These
frescoes are nowadays a source of pride for the locals and a popular visitor attraction.40

39 Dinu, 2012
40 www.fortified-churches.com
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PHOTO OF THE -CHURCH

Linked to this Hungarian presence in the village, Mălâncrav has a particular past in another regard
as well. Unlike the other Saxon villages in the region, Mălâncrav did not belong to the so-called free
royal land of Transylvania, the Königsboden. It is rare to have a manor house in a Saxon village, and
even rarer to encounter a Saxon village where its inhabitants were not considered free, as only three
Saxon villages were ruled by Hungarians governors. What is even more unusual is that Mălâncrav's
villagers were bound in serfdom up until the 19th century; 12 years after serfdom had been abolished
in the rest of Romania. It would be easy to deduce that all this singular past has shaped a distinct
Saxon community in Mălâncrav, highly closed-off and insular.

After serfdom was abolished, the storyline of the village is similar to other traditional Saxon villages
in Transylvania, with just one exception. As stated above, Mălâncrav was relatively immune to the
mass exodus of Saxons in 1990. Mălâncrav is still a culturally mixed village today, with at least four
spoken languages and three different churches; it’s a village in which Saxon heritage continues to
be vividly recreated by the remaining Saxon population. Some old traditions prevail, and the lutheran
church still boasts of having its own priest, who lives in the village.

Many Saxon festivities and social traditions are still celebrated, reminding the community of their
shared culture. For example, in late June takes place the Kronenfest. “To thank God for the growing
in the field and gardens”, the community makes crowns out of oak leaves and wild flowers, and
young men must climb a tree or a high pole to place the crown on top of it. Towards the end of April,
the village is also decorated with yellow flowers and pine boughs that hang in the wooden doors of
houses. The beginning of every agricultural year is also celebrated.

Lutheran church life is preserved by the Saxon community, by the people living both in Mălâncrav
and beyond. Some parishioners still wear traditional clothing for Sunday church service, and those
who have emigrated still have their seat reserved in the church, where small knitted colourful pillows
await their return to the pews. Inside the church, the order of songs for the service is written on a
blackboard, and the church seating is still organised by ancient rules separating parishioners by age,
gender and marital status. The church’s significance to the Saxon community is still very important.

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Overall, all these characteristics have built a Saxon community quite strong in terms of their
cohesion. Saxon communities gather frequently, émigrés retain key influence over local policies and
many decisions are still taken collectively. On the other hand, this also leaves little space for new
and foreign ideas, and may exclude others that also live in the community.

Mălâncrav and MET

MET arrived in Mălâncrav in 2000. As described by a local villager “MET arrived exactly at the right
moment, when no one saw any reasons why to stay in the village”. In the beginning, just as in Viscri,
the aim was to contribute to the conservation of its built heritage. However, as time passed by, MET
gradually discovered itself promoting local sustainable development and equal opportunities for all
the inhabitants. Between 2000 and 2015, 179 projects were implemented in Mălâncrav, most
pertaining to heritage conservation. Yet, in recent years projects have gradually changed in scope.
Today, they are more concerned with developing sustainable tourism, improving mutual
understanding, and looking for local economic sustainability. Projects seem to be already bearing
fruit, as Aurelia Boitor, a local teacher, mentions that “since MET arrived, young people are starting
to stay in the village instead of leaving abroad, and many others came back from Germany. Every
year I have more children at the kindergarten where I teach”.

Illustration: MET's Projects in Mălâncrav (2000-2015) (sent attached – to be redrawn)

Although many years have already passed, MET's first approach to the village proved to be tricky,
with a misstep caused by a lack of experience which almost jeopardised MET's involvement in the
village overall.

When MET first arrived in the village, after having worked in Viscri where Caroline was well known
to almost everyone, the Trust took no steps to formally present itself and share its ideas and
ambitions in the village. “We started working in some restorations, just like that, back at that time we
didn't know it was important to focus on community meetings first”, Caroline said. A common mistake
driven by too much enthusiasm and a pinch of anxiety, one may infer. Because of this, MET and the
projects were at first glance misread. The ensuing level of mistrust was high, and the connection
between MET and people was described as low and superficial.
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“In the beginning, everyone thought that everything we did was for ourselves and not for the
community. It was a big mistake”, Caroline admitted. Even if this one was a bad start, it has also led
to the learning that when working with communities, nothing can be taken for granted. Face-to-face
communication should be trained and put into practice as much as possible, and as soon as
community was effectively involved, everything changed.

The manor house, from the nobility to the community

Despite its distance from Viscri, Mălâncrav was the second village in which MET decided to apply
its methods. This village was chosen for two almost antagonistic reasons. On the one side,
Mălâncrav was the last Saxon village in Romania to be declared “free”, as previously said, in the
second half of the 19th century. For this, MET saw a need to promote Mălâncrav's self-driven
development. On the other side, Mălâncrav's Apafi manor house was derelict and in need of
rehabilitation. Despite being a forgotten emblem of Mălâncrav's subordination to a noble family and
a certain degree of backwardness, the manor was also an important symbol of locally built heritage,
which was calling to be revitalised for the community.

Mălâncrav's manor house was originally built by the Apafi family around the 15 th century. There are
detailed records of all changes and alterations made to the building through which it is possible to
trace the history since its construction. The last private owner donated it to the Lutheran church in
the 1920s which found use as a community centre for the villagers. In 1949, the residence was
nationalised, and even though it was used as the village hall, little to no maintenance was carried
out. In 1990, the derelict building returned to ownership of the Lutheran community, who lacked the
funds needed for upkeep.

When Jessica and other MET members arrived, the building was in such a poor state that it cried for
assistance. After meeting with Saxon community elders and representatives of the Lutheran church,
MET bought the building with the purpose of restoring it. As Jessica described the moment: “the
unwritten pact was that we would do all in our power to bring it back to its former beauty”.

The objective was to restore the manor to its original 18th century state as far as possible. However,
the size of the project and the work needed symbolised a true test for MET. At the time, MET had
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gained experience in renovating houses, façades and barns, but rebuilding such a monument
required much more expertise and self-confidence. The Packard Humanities Institute and Horizon
Foundation financially supported the project, and the restoration works began in 2003. Not yet sure
about how to approach such a challenge, MET brought someone on board who proved to be a
cornerstone of MET's activity in Mălâncrav: Jan Hülsemann, the architect mentioned above as the
author of the so-called “restoration bible”. To everyone's surprise, despite the incomparably higher
complexity of the works, Jan suggested using local skilled workers from the village and surroundings
instead of hiring building professionals from elsewhere. Following the same philosophy tested in
Viscri, and the one MET will develop for the Whole Village Project, villagers were trained by
international experts and hired as skilled workers. “From the time we went local, the work became
much more enjoyable”, Jessica would later add.

Jan led the arduous restoration process, with Ernst Linzing, who nowadays is an experienced
craftsman in Mălâncrav, leading a team of 20 local craftmen on the ground. Just as in Viscri, MET
built a brick and tile kiln to supply materials. Almost all the workers who participated in the restoration
were local, with many continuing to work with MET and/or running their own business. As Ernst
described it himself: “I was first trained by MET, then hired to work in the manor house and finally
encouraged to start my own restoration business”. In this way, as time passed and restoration works
continued, the villagers began to slowly warm to MET's presence in their home.

The works required learning by doing, intensive research and a high level of cooperation between
experts and the community. It took several years of persistent work before the manor house was
finally inaugurated in 2007 as a guest house and a place for ceremonies. “I made all the curtains
with my own hands”, one of the local weavers, Elena Neagu, remembered. She used to be an
accounting assistant, but she after adminiting “my real passion is weaving”, she was encouraged for
the job. Carefully ornamented with locally made carpets, carpentry, baskets and woven decorations,
the house also has five bedrooms, a kitchen, a library specialised in Eastern European history and
a big garden with a fountain, enough charm for every nook and cranny.

MET continues to manage the house with the help of a local Saxon-Romanian couple from the
village. As responsibilities and commitments started to increase, learning to delegate has been
crucial. This couple was living in Germany when they learned that MET was looking for someone to
take care of the manor. “We wanted to come back to Mălâncrav, it was an opportunity and we took
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it”, said Regina and Neluţu Linzing, who returned with their children in 2007 to take on this role.

Overall, this was an extremely rewarding experience for both MET and the community. It allowed
MET to turn a vision into a large project, and to gain self-confidence. For the community, this was
the starting point of developing local entrepreneurship specialising in restoration techniques, and
many other services related to the revitalisation of traditional crafts. For example, Elena, the weaver
quoted above, said that she began weaving professionally after a teacher from England, who arrived
in 2002 as part of the Apafi manor restoration, took an interest in her weaving technique. “Until that
moment, I was weaving just to help my mother, but when I realised what I could really do with my
hands I started to weave professionally”. She has not only done all the curtains of the Apafi manor,
but she has continued weaving to this day; nowadays she is taking orders from across Europe.
“People come visit the village and then they call me and ask me if I can weave them a carpet. I have
several models, all are traditional from here. Now many houses in Europe have a piece of Mălâncrav
hanging on their walls!”

The manor house restoration has allowed the manor to find its place in modernity. As a good example
of a cultural heritage revitalisation, its function has been re-signified, and it is thus part of the present-
day community. The works boosted the local economy, and many products and services brought
back for the restoration continue to be provided for the regular stream of visitors. The Apafi manor
became a point of pride for the locals. In recognition, its restoration won the Europa Nostra Award
in 2006, which celebrates and promotes best practices related to heritage conservation,
management, research, education and communication.

The apple orchard, merging cultural and natural heritage

As mentioned above, Mălâncrav is a village of deep roots, where many people are closely connected
to their land and proud of being farmers. This sets them apart from other villages, where farming has
become associated with low-incomes. Many crops are grown here, such as cereals and grapes, but
the emblematic fruit of the region is apple. Not surprisingly, the local culinary speciality is an apple-
based soup.

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Since medieval times, the Mălâncrav orchard has been located between the manor house and the
church. Abandoned in 1990, MET began leasing it from the state in 2002, looking to produce certified
organic apple juice. On one side, the orchard signified an important part of the village's cultural
heritage; on the other, it was also a potential source of rural economic development. Yet, the
considerable lease payments to the State Domains Agency (Agentia Domeniile Statului) jeopardised
the sustainability of the project. With the initial help from international funds, it can today sustain itself
from the sale of its apple juices from its production. About this, the Mayor from the village said:
“MET's implication in the orchard was very important for Mălâncrav's rural development, as it now
employs local people, produces juice and attracts tourists.”

One of the difficulties in this project was communicating to the locals that an organic orchard was
preferable to an industrial scale plantation. As often is the case elsewhere, especially in post-
communist times, these rural villages often exhibit the tendency to hold “Western modernisation and
technologies” in higher regard than traditional techniques. This drives people to disregard the value
of traditional and organic farming, as they consider them antiquated and uncompetitive.

However, after some workshops explaining the fundamentals of the project, people understood and
internalised its advantages. Currently, around 100 hectares are planted with all apple trees, and near
4,000 trees have also been planted. These include traditional apple varieties from Transylvania and
Germany, such as Parmen Auriu, Renet of Leizberf, Trenet of Bauman, Gustav Durabil, and Frumos
of Boscop. The added value is that organic farming enables biodiversity in flora and fauna, conserves
water and soil and preserves the traditional agricultural landscape.

The orchard produces around 120 tons of apples in good harvest years, which equates to about
30,000 litres of juice, produced thanks to a juicing equipment donated by the British Embassy in
Bucharest. Most recently, the Accor hotel chain has become one of the orchard’s clients, ordering
organic apple juice to serve in its restaurants. The orchard is managed by MET’s ProMET business,
and about 40 local workers work there in the high season.

As part of the Whole Village Project, MET aimed to promote traditional agricultural practices and turn
them into a sustainable activity that generates income for the village. When people realised that
these techniques were not only up-to-date but also appreciated at international level, local pride
again increased. Villagers have had the opportunity to learn, experience, and gain knowledge of fruit
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growing techniques that they can now apply to their own lands.

This environmental project has been a vector of natural and cultural heritage revitalisation, and part
of the Whole Village Project umbrella. By adding the traditional apple flavour to the village, natural
biodiversity has increased and the agricultural landscape has been revived. The place was re-
understood, and an involved community received a reborn traditional knowledge, employment and
incomes from the locally produced juice.

The school, learning to be community

Of the many actions MET did in the village, one in particular has tested MET’s commitment to the
whole village as a multicultural unit. In 2008, the Saxon community sought to claim the village’s
school building, as it had originally been property of the Lutheran church. This required the
construction of a new school building for all children, as the Saxon community planned to re-purpose
the one it was claiming. MET voiced opposition to the Saxons' demands, as the new building would
mean unnecessary expense for the village and risked compromising the architectural authenticity of
its surroundings. A national rule specifying that school buildings had to have three floors would have
blocked the view of the church and the manor house to the villagers. The Trust took the view that
the decision posed a risk to Mălâncrav's landscape, and the project ended by dividing the community.
The relationship between the Saxon community and the local authorities grew increasingly heated,
at even today's Mayor admitted that “MET was almost asked to leave the village as it was considered
to be an obstacle to the Saxon’s plans”. However, the Saxon community was still unwilling to leave
the school to the village, pushing the authorities to the need of building a new school.

Through dialogue a compromise was reached. Financed by the World Bank, authorities accepted to
build a two-floor school, maintaining the panorama. The experience reinforced MET’s vision and
position that, in a multicultural space, heritage is part of the whole place.

Re-inventing tourism in the village

As in most of the villages where MET is active, MET promotes sustainable tourism in Mălâncrav.
Today, around 3,000 tourists visit the village every year, attracted by its church, the manor house,
the landscape and less tangible aspects such as the village’s authenticity and cosiness. Even if there
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is no mobile phones reception and the first landline was only laid in 2005, Mălâncrav has a grocery
shop; some transport services and is relatively close to larger villages such as Laslea.

Apart from the Apafi manor, tourists can stay in three other guest houses restored by MET. The
management of these ones is tasked out to local graduates of the agro-tourism management course
also provided by MET. “I love working as a guest house manager” sais Aurelia Boitor, teacher and
also one of these managers, “I meet people from all over the world and I can surprise them with a
different meal every day.”

However, in stark contrast to Viscri in other villages, Mălâncrav locals have not followed suit in setting
up their own guest houses, as people argue that they “do not want strangers in their homes”. MET’s
guest houses remain the only ones in the village, with no plans to expand the business. This might
be due to a community looking to stay close and prevent changes, but, in any case, it is another
example of the fact that every place reacts differently and that differences may be linked to a village's
past, to its inhabitants’ lifestyles and ambitions. Projects just need to adapt.

Even so, the number of tourists continues to increase to considerable levels for a rural community.
Thus, in order to promote the place's identity and its entrepreneurial capacities, MET also organises
open workshop circuits as part of the “Cultural Route and Multi-ethnic Heritage” project. “Without
MET, tourists wouldn't be coming here, no one would know all the beauties we have here”, added
Aurelia. During high tourist seasons, tourists can visit local craftsmen’s workshops, kitchens and
traditional bread ovens in Mălâncrav. A map has even been drawn indicating the houses where
craftsmen live or have their workshops. “It is extremely heart-warming to see how tourists are
interested in what we produce”, a local basket weaver pointed out. In this way, tourists can discover
traditional handicrafts, along with woodworking and traditional cooking techniques. While wary of
putting them up for the night, the local population has opened its doors for tourists to appreciate the
behind of how things are produced here.

Final words

Mălâncrav seems to be one of the most enthusiastic villages in which MET is active: ideas are quickly
put to debate, people are mostly willing to participate, and they show a creative and dynamic mind-
set when doing so. In the beginning, better communication would have paved the way for MET to
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develop its projects in Mălâncrav more smoothly. People in the village already had a natural sense
of belonging to the place, an intrinsic pride and a historical attachment to the village. MET’s projects,
and the Whole Village Project, have sought to reduce disparities between cultural groups, while
boosting the local economy and revitalising architectural sites. In this sense, seeking to develop
craftsmanship and creating channels through which these products can be sold remains one of
MET's priorities today. It is again the combination of projects, more than the impact of a single one,
that contributes to uniting the community through their heritage. As a local villager described it: “MET
came to open the eyes of the community, to show us what we had and what we shared”.

Lessons learned by MET, from its experience in Mălâncrav (in hand-writting syle)

● Natural and agricultural heritage are also part of the community cultural heritage.

● It is necessary to learn how to adapt to different contexts and interlocutors, but without
changing the main spirit of the message.

● Keeping clear, direct and simple communication channels with the community may improve
trust in the organisation.

● Sometimes it is necessary to encourage people to act and react, as sometimes they are not
aware of their own talents.

● It is important to stop and take time to look back and evaluate what has been done. All the
achievements and mistakes, as well as their importance for the community, need to be
evaluated and revised constantly.

● In order to be truly able to understand a village, one needs to spend time in the community.

● It is important to find ways so people can appreciate and realise the difficulty behind any
given project implemented.

● Sustainability is only achieved when all the community members are involved and looking
for it.

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Criț
Deutschkreutz – Szászkeresztúr
At the crossroads

Of the villages outlined in this book, Criț is the one where the dor feeling is most tangible. This
lukewarm melancholy can be almost felt physically through the locals’ hugs or handshakes. Gazes
seem oddly empty and time seems to falter as the first leaves fall in autumn. Amidst this sensation,
horse-carts full piled high with wood drive breaking the silence of the shining colours of the houses,
while the church opens its doors for the Sunday service.

Illustration: Map of Criț (sent attached – to be redrawn)

Criț is a village with 676 inhabitants in the commune of Bunești in the Brasov county. Even though it
is neighbour to Viscri, Criț has little in common with Viscri. The village used to be the centre of the
commune, an important producer of wine and a centre of regional social activities. It is now a calm
village, and its wide central road is little frequented comparing with the years of greater splendour.

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Before it was moved mere kilometres away, the main road used to pass through the village, providing
dynamism and life to the thoroughfare and its surroundings. During the Saxon exodus, the proximity
to the main road, and the resulting easy access to the village encouraged others to move and settle
here during and after 1990. A constant change in the local population, and the fact that most of the
local population rent instead of owning their houses, has instilled in the villagers a soft detachment
from the place, and from its built heritage, which is still considered to be the responsibility of an
authority elsewhere. It is a “no home village”, a someone from Criț described it. The local community
seems nowadays more divided than elsewhere, and different cultural groups rarely get along.

In this context, Criț is also the village on which MET has concentrated most of its efforts after Viscri.
Yet, after much effort, improvement still hides timidly from MET's view. Three of the four aspects
identified as key to developing a project have failed to bear fruit in this village in MET’s regard: the
support of the authorities, the local facilitator, and community involvement. The picture is not wholly
bleak, but it would be mistaken to see in Criț a symbol of accomplishment in terms of MET’s vision.

The cross

Criț was first mentioned in an official document in 1322, and its name translates to “the cross”. It appears that
the first settlement was laid out in a cross shape around a hill; but it could also be a metaphorical meaning due
to its location at a crossroads. During medieval times, the village was important regionally; not only as a centre
of commercial trade, but also because some cultural and educational advances were first developed here.

The church, first built in 1270 and fortified in the 15 th century, was also the home to the first school in a rural
settlement in Transylvania. Installed inside the walls of the fortification in the 16 th century, this school was
established 40 years before the first school in the city of Brasov. This is a significant distinction from other
villages, and made Criț a prestigious centre of learning in the area, where Greek and Latin were taught and
even spoken.

In order to explain the prestige associated with the village, it is worth recalling that a craftsman or a shoemaker
was placed at the door of the church. The cobbled street up to the church was steep, and many women broke
their shoes on their way up. This craftsman was then there to provide urgent repairs before entering the church,
preventing peasants from losing their elegance.41

41 www.fortified-churches.com
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Until the late '80s, Criț continued to be a distinctive village, with a particularly developed collective farm and an
important health facility. Despite this, the Saxon exodus before and especially after the fall of the communism
was one of greatest in the region. Many of those leaving before 1990 have been asked to sell their houses to
the local authorities, which continue to manage the properties until date. Only few kept their houses as summer
residences, meaning equally few maintained strong ties with the village.

As mentioned above, its proximity to the main road has made Criț easy to access, with a fluctuating population
that can easily move here or away. This has brought about quick territorial transformations as well as faster
erosion of traditions in favour of a more modern lifestyle.

The Whole Village Project and its mounting issues

MET first arrived in Criț in 2001. Given its proximity to Viscri and the fact that Caroline had already worked
there as an accountant for the collective farm, Criț was one of the first villages where MET attempted to
implement its Whole Village Project. As Caroline had worked with the former president of the cooperative, and
they maintained a good relationship, the problem of finding a local leader to facilitate MET’s activities in town
was, at first glance, solved.

Over the course of the past years, MET has developed 148 projects in Criț, 107 of which have concerned the
built heritage. A total of 20 locals were trained in traditional crafts, four in agro-tourism management and 12
supported and encouraged to start small businesses. MET also owns two guest houses, which contributed to
hosting some of the 2,000 tourists that visited in the village in 2015, twice as many as in 2012.

MET's Projects in Criț (2000-2015) (sent attached – to be redrawn)

Although numbers seem encouraging, the truth is that few people have become involved with MET activities.
In the words of the former local leader “people were looking for a monthly paid check, and not to develop their
own business. People did not understand the opportunity they were given, and many of them preferred to
emigrate and to work abroad”. As proof of this, from the total people trained, only two still work today as
craftsmen.

The local leader's role highlighted

One of the reasons that explains the high number of projects in Criț compared to other villages, is an event
occurred in 2009, which required re-building many already refurbished façades.

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By 2009, MET had facilitated the restoration of many façades in the village. However, in the same year, the
Romanian national electricity company came to Criț to install a new electricity meters, which were supposed
to be an improvement in people's quality of life. So far so good, the electricity company decided to install the
meters on the front-facing façades of the houses, destroying some traditional ornaments, putting sometimes
in danger the house structure and undoing 10 years of work to restore the historical look of the village. Overall,
117 façades had been damaged to install the equipment. Meanwhile, MET’s local facilitator, who was in charge
of safeguarding MET’s works and to promote its activities in the community, had provided MET with no advance
notice about the changes, nor had he intervened to stop the defacement.

After long discussions with the authorities and the electricity company, who argued that it had been legally
required to place the meters where it had, MET used the small print of the law to defend its standpoint. While
Romanian legislation required meters to be placed where they can be accessible, it did not stipulate this
needed to be on the front of buildings. Letters to ministers, NGOs and other institutions were written asking for
support in reversing the changes, what has reinforced partnership alliances. This placed enough pressure on
the electricity company to the point that it agreed to move the meters to a more discreet spot or in the courtyard
if locals formally requested this. A company representative was puzzled as to MET’s interest in the village,
asking: “Why do you care so much about this village that has not much to be proud of?” The Trust’s reply was
simply: “Precisely because their houses are almost everything they have”. Of the 117 houses that had received
the meters, only three families did not agree to change the meter's location.

Though regrettable, this incident gave MET the possibility to learn and improve. As the local leader has a far-
reaching responsibility, it must act in unison with the Trust. The relationship between MET and local leaders
needs to be transparent, and the two have to share the same basic vision to be able to collaborate towards
the same objective. On the positive side, this incident has established legal precedence in the region, and no
other similar intervention has since been carried out without taking the conservation of built heritage into
consideration.

The failed project of the central square monument

In 2013, MET decided to rebuild a monument formerly standing in the central square of the village. In fact, the
idea actually came up during the summer cultural Haferland Woche festival. At this occasion and for the first
time, around 200 Saxons who had emigrated from Criț returned to enjoy these festivities together. During
conversations, they realised that a monument in the centre of the village, which they perceived as giving the
village a certain value and uniqueness, had been demolished after the revolution. Their nostalgia in speaking
of it ended by encouraging MET to enquire with the other villagers if they were interested in rebuilding this

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monument. After community consultations and some research about the origin of this monument, the local
authorities gave verbal agreement for MET to restore the central square, and the Horizon Foundation approved
funding for the project. The Monument was then to be rebuilt.

This statue used to be made out of stone dredged from a local riverbed. Not long before, working this stone
was a common craft in the village, yet the knowledge of how to do so was almost forgotten. MET built on its
experience and brought in specialists from England to re-train locals in stone carving while rebuilding the
statue. However, when everything was set to begin, the local authorities withdrew the support, pointing out
that the agreement had been verbal and not formal. Saying that the villagers had not really wanted such a
monument, authorities promised to hold a referendum, which never took place. Until this time, yet regrettably,
MET had followed the common local practice of having verbal rather than written agreements. This event,
where the monument in the village central square could not be built and money had to be returned to the
funders, helped in learning the importance of having formal support from the local authorities and signing
reliable agreements every time a project is developed.

Tourism development

As in many other villages in the region, MET insisted into developing tourism as a means of local development.
“MET changed the aspect of the village, and tourists starting coming”, said Adrian, the owner of guest house.
“MET also did the restoration of the façade, roof and barn of the 300 years old house that I bought to turn into
a guest house”, he added. Even if tourism was promoted inside the village, people do not seem to have “caught
the tourism wave”, as a MET team member, described it. Few of the people trained in agro-tourism still develop
this activity. From them, Sorina Matei realised that having her own guest house could become a source of
income without the need of moving abroad. As she explained it herself, “I really thought there weren't any
opportunities here. I had a full time job, but I had to travel a lot everyday and it was exhausting. Then I met a
MET team member and he gave me this idea of developing a job related to tourism. I'm taking the MET course
now, and I'm very enthusiastic with the idea of hosting tourists, cooking and having a good income”.

“I don't know why, but in Criț people lack the sentiment of togetherness around the same goal”, a MET team
member stated. However, community members like Rozalia Anghel who sells local products, still believe in
their village and its capacity to be one.

Steps forward

Criț is a village were MET has encountered much resistance. Many locals still barely trust the organisation or
do not participate in MET’s activities. Many do not recognise MET's name, or care little about their built

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heritage. However, many does not necessary mean all, and those who do care should continue to be
accompanied and encouraged.

This is, however, no reason for MET to give up. Conversely, it means more effort needs to be taken to connect
with the local people and to contribute to improving their well-being. A new project centred on urban planning
has been launched and a new possible local facilitator identified. Sorina Matei concluded: “I dream about
building in Criț a new Viscri, full of tourists and full of life.”

Lessons learned by MET, from its experience in Criț (in hand-writting style)

● The local leader should be chosen carefully and also trained.

● A good relationship with the authorities is essential, as well as keeping written records of the
agreements and commitments from both parties.

● Some solved problems can be the basis for similar solutions in the future. Lessons learned translate
into experience.

● It is important to be physicall present in the village, to pass by, to discuss in person, to share
concerns: to let people know you are there for them.

● Priorities are not always the same for MET and for the locals, and sometimes development is seen
differently by MET and by the locals. For the success of a project, it is important to find a common
goal and to put it in words.

● Resources and capacities are limited. MET does not replace a governmental institution, it
complements it.

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Alma Vii
Almen - Szászalmád
The pearl in the hills

Blooming in the middle of a fertile valley, Alma Vii is a quiet place where life is made simple. It has escaped
traffic and its built heritage has remained almost untouched. Time seems to tick more slowly in here, and the
place transmits a feeling as being in a raw or unfinished state. In this light air, MET is engaged to find its place
in a reborn community, which is in turn looking for new opportunities to fully and sustainably grow.

Illustration: Map of Alma Vii (Sent attached – to be redrawn)

Alma Vii is located at the end of a winding road in the municipality of Moșna, in the county of Sibiu. At present,
390 inhabitants spread across 200 households, many of whom have settled here after 1990. 51% of its
population are Roma speakers, 46% are Romanians and only 3% of today's population is made up by the
remaining Saxons. Again, each house is painted in a different colour, and each façade is printed with a family
seal, along with a date and a reference to an important event in the building's history. Barns are sometimes
placed next to the main road, and houses at the back, a distinction which is actually a consequence of the
humidity of the soils and the penchant of the slopes.

At a first glance, Alma Vii seems to be beautifully yet strangely static. Streets seem sometimes devoid of
people and animals. There is silence hovering in the orchards, hanging heavy with untouched fruits. Alma Vii
could be compared to a sleeping beauty village, which is maybe one of the reasons why MET approached the

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village in 2008.

Alma Vii was founded in 1289 as a free Saxon village in Transylvania. Legend has it that its name comes from
a girl called Helma, who lived in a neighbouring settlement. Accused of committing an “immoral act”, she was
being chased by a group of men, who pushed her into a lake to drown her. However, she dove deep into the
water, only coming up for air in the safety of reeds growing at the shore. Afraid of returning to those neighbours
who wanted to kill her, she ended by building a hut and called it home. According to the legend, Alma Vii
stands on the site of this hut: the name Alma Vii translates to Helma's Vineyards. The area close to the village,
where the lake dried out over time, is still called Olde Woar (ancient lake).

Alma Vii's Saxon church was built two centuries later, on top of the nearby hill and close to a sprawling forest.
Around the 16th century, the church was fortified, and in the 19th century, the entire building was remodelled in
late Gothic style. Until some time ago, the church was rarely frequented and its structure was in ruins, even if
it can be seen from almost every corner of the village.

As can be seen by the adornments on village walls, Alma Vii used to be surrounded by vineyards and orchards,
and populated by farmers. Similar to other nearby villages, during the Saxon exodus of 1990, most of Alma
Vii’s Saxon population left abruptly. In fact, the last Saxon family left in 1995. With this, the local population
changed to such an extent that, in 2005, the only German-speaking villager was actually a “100% Romanian”,
as he stated himself.

Alma Vii has a mixed population, just like everywhere in Transylvania. But unlike other villages, this mixture
has a brief history, with most of the population arriving after 1990, not native to the region nor from rural areas.
Some came from surrounding towns such as Mediaș, or bought houses as summer residences or places to
retire. Subsequently, many of today’s villagers lack of deep sense of belonging to the village. Many do not live
here permanently, some hardly know their neighbours, and many other do not consider themselves as living
in a rural landscape. There is a significant percentage of elderly residents, the working population is highly
dependent on social aid, working in nearby towns or has already emigrated for good. “People are leaving
again, they look for job opportunities in cities or abroad. It is such a pity!” explained Simona Jacob, a community
member who decided to invest locally. Because of this issue, many people living in Alma Vii also seem to be
partially detached from the village, which at times appears to be only a window dressing for their daily lives.
Along with the lack of visible job opportunities, there seems to be a smooth feeling of keeping to yourself, what
used to be translated into little care about local heritage or and development.

MET was already aware of these issues when it came to Alma Vii. Attracted by the idea of finding in Alma Vii
a rough gem that hoped to shine, MET first put the Whole Village Project into motion in 2008. On the one side,

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local authorities were demanding MET to develop community projects in the area, as the local Mayor stated
himself. On other side, MET was keen to put the experience gathered since the first Whole Village Project
began in 2000 to a new test. Starting another Whole Village Project from scratch represented an attractive
challenge for MET, as it has significantly improved its internal organisation in the late years. “All our efforts
nowadays are focusing on Alma Vii. It is such a beautiful village, with such beautiful people... it just needs to
come out from the shadows”, said one MET team member by the year 2015. From the beginning the objective
was very clear: revitalise all aspects of the community, and contribute as much as possible in rebuilding a self-
sustainable village.

Alma Vii and MET

Different from the approach undertaken in some other villages, the projects initiated in 2008 in Alma Vii followed
a more organised structure. The sequence of steps, already tested in other villages, yet improved by the
experience, included: formally assessing the village’s heritage, holding organised meetings with the
community, carefully identifying local leaders, proposing trainings to the local community, agreeing on carrying
out renovation works, building guest house models for tourists, setting in educational programs, and initiating
and developing small rural enterprises.

In this context, from 2008 to 2015, 26 small and big projects have been developed in the village, most of them
based on community efforts. MET has contributed in restoring façades, repairing ancient wooden bridges,
paving roads, among other activities; but it has also encouraged the development of local business and
neighbour’s associations, and has organised summer camps for children. “MET is doing so much, that it is
hard to believe it is true”, said Simona Jacob.

Florin Moise, a physics engineer who moved in 2013 from Bucharest, also remembers his experience with
MET: “After buying this house in Alma Vii, I received a letter from the Mayor in Moșna saying I was barred from
making any changes to the house because of heritage protection policies. However, the house was in such a
bad state, that I needed to do something. Some time later, I contacted MET and they came to see me. Two
people came, both of them full of smiles, a black haired lady called Caroline and a man called Sandel. That
particular Friday it was snowing heavily, there was a big storm. In those conditions, I thought they would never
come. But they came. When they saw the house, they were much more optimistic than I was. Everything was
in ruins, but they looked around and were very enthusiastic. Three months later they were already starting with
their work. They repaired the roof, and did some other repairs. It was a great experience.”

Over 50 locals have been trained in masonry, carpentry, agro-tourism and English language skills. A workshop
for a carpenter and a blacksmith have been supported, three guest houses have been set up and six people

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encouraged to register their own enterprises. The old Romanian school building has been restored and
transformed into an information and professional training centre. This one offers information about heritage
and traditional crafts, and training courses and recognised diplomas in carpentry, masonry, language learning,
agro-tourism and accounting. The village store has been remodelled to accommodate a traditional rustical
wine cellar, and a medical doctor has also been given an office to visit the village and treat patients.

Illustration: MET's Projects in Alma Vii (2008-2015) (sent attached – to be redrawn)

“MET is bringing this village to life. They repair not just some things, but everything!”
Florin Moise, Alma Vii

Lately tourists also started coming, as MET opened two guesthouses in the village. “Tourists say our village is
authentic, original and that there are birds, insects and all kind of animals that are no longer found in their
countries”, said Simona Jacob. “Since MET arrived, tourists also arrived. The arrival of tourists is activating
the village. Everything would be almost dead here without MET”, added Maria Ganea, a guest house manager.
Maria had originally bought a house in the village as a holiday home, but after retiring from her previous career
five years ago, she moved to the village for good. “I thought that, at my age, I was done with business, but I
love what I'm doing”, she says, “people come from everywhere, I learn about new cultures and I come into
contact with different languages... In a way, MET has changed my life, and if I had to make them again, I would
make the exact same choices.”

Meanwhile, as part of the participatory approach implemented in the village, the creation of a Stakeholders'
Advisory Council (SAC) was encouraged to facilitate meetings and activities, and to give the community a
renew voice in MET’s actions. By this means, the community is consulted in every step of the planning and
implementation of all projects. The council’s permanent members are the Mayor, the priest, the school
headmaster, representatives of other institutions and organisations on a local and regional level, and finally,
of course, local community members. Meetings take place often, and allow everyone concerned to express
their ideas and interests.

The approach applied in Alma Vii, clearer and more organised than anywhere else, has aimed at the same
time to increase awareness, involve new stakeholders, ensure the protection of local heritage and look straight
into sustainable development. This approach is proving the benefit of a new generation of Whole Village
Projects.

“The most difficult issue is how to explain to people why they should believe in themselves and in their

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community”, said Simona Jacob, who as a local facilitator goes door by door involving people in MET's projects.
She arrived from the Moldavia region and even if she has a higher education degree, some time ago she was
unemployed and trying to figure out if it was better to find a job in a city or to raise her family in the village.
However, since Alma Vii is offering better job opportunities she says: “I'm working for the community now, I
don't need to travel everyday to the city and come back in the evening, I can stay in Alma Vii and I can also
work here”. Patience and perseverance are succeeding in meeting these objectives. As time passes by and
more projects are developed, the community seems more active and committed with their village and own self-
fulfilment everyday.

This gradual change has nevertheless called for exploring new and creative strategies to improve the ways of
reaching out to the community. In this context, many essays exploring different directions have been written
over the last few years, always looking for effective techniques to involve people. “The biggest challenge in
Alma Vii has always been to encourage the community to be one”, Mircea Novak, a local villager says. It is
worth noting that adapting to different contexts is one of the biggest challenges when managing projects;
adapting in the sense of evolving, of being intelligent, flexible and resilient enough so as to encourage the
community without losing sight of the main purpose. The unpredictability that is ever present in working with
people continues to be one of the most delicate aspects of implementing a project.

Rehabilitation of the church fortification and centre of interpretation of traditional culture

Often great works are not dependant on single actions, but moreover on remaining perseverant in the face of
adversities. If since 2010 MET has entered a new stage in terms of its projects and community approach, one
result of this evolution is the restoration of Alma Vii’s fortified church, and the creation a Centre of Interpretation
of Traditional Culture there.

This project, initiated in 2015 with the financial support of EEA Grants and the Romanian Ministry of Culture,
and in partnership with the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), has certainly been the
largest and most challenging project done by MET to date. This not only pertains to the funds raised, the scale
of the works and the number of people engaged, but also because the project sought to integrate the entire
community and to maximise the benefits of this heritage revitalisation for all of its members, reinforcing the
local multicultural mixture and expanding the scope from the regional to the international level.

Simply put, the project restored the fortified wall of the church which was in ruins, and built inside a communal
kitchen, a library, a place for meetings and a centre of cultural interpretation for tourists. “This is assuring the
conservation of our past”, as Mircea Novak has put it. However, the project is more than its palpable results,
as it also aimed to create a world-class good practice model of sustainable local and regional development,

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based on revitalising the heritage in the heart of Alma Vii.

It symbolises the exploration of a new universe for MET. If until today, MET has mostly focused on restoring
buildings into their “traditional” shape for “traditional” purposes, this project has changed the philosophy in
which monuments are to be revitalised, as the church wall under has changed its original function to adapt to
new realities. Heritage in this way has been re-signified by community members.

As big it may seem, the project was motivated by the expressed desire of the locals to restore the citadel. It
is said that the church fortification used to have an oven which was used by the villagers many years ago.
Locals sought to build a bakery to be able to prepare a traditional savoury cake made of cabbage “lichiu cu
varză”. With this idea in mind, MET created a questionnaire focused on cultural tourism in Alma Vii, which led
to the conclusion that the majority of the locals perceived the fortified church to be the central element of their
local development.

Seeking to reinvent the community through its heritage, the project has valorised the entire multi-ethnic
heritage of Alma Vii, which represents a combination of Saxon, Romanian and Roma heritage and its cultural
practices. “We are working together and we are more united now. We are all connected and we are developing
tourism in the village”, said Simona.

Furthermore, the project sought to promote small businesses, entrepreneurial cooperation and even a
community association that can offer hospitality services and handcrafted products to visitors. “Projects are
giving the people new possibilities of economical independence”, said Mircea. In this regard, the project also
sought to diversify skills and promote sustainable practices; which were looking to contribute to young people
willing to stay and settle down. As a member of MET once said, “if the project succeeds at least in making one
member of the community stay in the village instead of emigrating, the project would already be a success.”

Besides, as proof of its integral approach, the project has also included archaeological research into the site’s
medieval history by specialists from both Romania and Norway. By promoting scientific exchanges between
the two countries, the project also allowed Romanian specialists to learn about improved documentation
techniques from the Norwegian partner.

To conclude, a documentary film and 10 other short films to promote Romania’s and Alma Vii’s heritage have
been produced. These films intended to serve as educational support and promote the cultural site.

A project of this magnitude and these characteristics, has necessarily called for a delicate balance between
efficiency and the patience to manage unforeseen issues that have constantly appeared. Even if it has been

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planned in detail and experienced contractors have been tasked, the management of the project as a whole
lied with the MET team, which had to harmonise views and concerns of local authorities, project partners, the
community and contractors. “The Alma Vii project is by far the more ambitious project we have ever developed.
We are putting all of our souls in this project”, said a MET team member. The challenge MET faces could be
compared to a music orchestra. Every musician is in charge of following one certain partition sheet, and
responsible for his or her notes, but the general coordination of the ensemble lies with the director of the
orchestra, which in this case is MET. MET’s evolution over the past years has, however, prepared the Trust to
cope with complexity in a more holistic way, ability that helps facing these sorts of challenges.

Among many unforeseen issues, boosting community involvement has still shown to be one of the most
important challenges. The many community meetings since the project’s commencement in April 2015 have
however paid off, as today's community seems more active and motivated, they picture themselves in this
restored and revitalised place, and have started believing in their own place. “The new citadel is bringing hope
to the village, and personally I trust that future generations will understand the value of our traditions, and that
they will care about them as we are doing right now”, concluded Simona.

Steps forward

Alma Vii represents a door to a new way of working, an evolved lens through which heritage and development
can be observed and understood. This challenges but also complements all of MET’s past experiences and
opens up opportunities to discover new ways of interacting with communities, other parties and heritage itself.

Without its past setbacks, MET would not have been able to arrive to the point of revitalising and managing
this kind of holistic project, that will likely lead to more projects of a similar kind.

Learning from the past requires accepting that, no matter what happened, this is the only past one can learn
from to build a sustainable present. Learning means advancing, and this is keeping up, thinking over, adapting,
creating and creating again.

Being on the correct path is sometimes just a feeling, which is sustained by one's feelings of connection and
the feedback received from those with whom one connects. When this feeling is there, the right people, right
places and and right timing naturally unfold all around.

In this sense, the signs of having made the good decisions may just lie in the statements of the people
concerned. The villager Florin Moise expressed his appreciation about the changes taking place in Alma Vii in
the following way: “I don't really know why, because life can be really difficult here. But I realise that people in

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the village are more and more happy. It is a small village, but they seem more happy every day”. The secret
is sometimes as easy as knowing how to listen, to read and to give people the space to share their fellings.

To conclude, all efforts put into Alma Vii or elsewhere are framed by the path of a continuous process, a
process framed by working together, keeping an optimistic attitude and gaining confidence. It is a process
guided by the feeling of being sure that what one is doing is right. It is a process that should always seek to
connect as much as possible with people; a process driven by creating, sharing, believing and persevering;

Lessons learned by MET, from its experience in Alma Vii (in hand-writting syle)

● Adaptability should be constantly trained when working with people.

● It is not only what one is doing that is important, but also how one is doing it.

● Being creative is the best way to create.

● People's feedback allows results to be evaluated.

● Working in partnership can help to better distribute tasks and the work to be done.

● When designing a project, every aspect of it should to be planned in detail. This will reduce
misunderstandings and misuse of time.

● Every project needs maintaining good relationships with authorities and contractors.

● It is important to strengthen healthy relationships between all members of the community and help
everybody find his/her role in it.

● In a heterogeneous community, usually everyone has different expectations. It is necessary to

balance all expectations in order to achieve mutual agreement.

● Sometimes people need some coaching to discover their own talents.

● The more heterogeneous the community, the greater the need for a local facilitator

● Children are eager to learn and to be involved in educational activities. Working with children is one
of the keys for rural development.

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Stories (In between village chapters)

PHOTO

“MET gave me the opportunity to come back to Romania, and I don't regret it. Today my family and I produce
between 30 and 40 thousand bricks and tiles per year in Viscri. People from everywhere in the world come
here to visit us, and to see how we produce all these bricks.
There are people who can't even dream of an opportunity like the one I had. I'm happy here, here is my
home.”

Gheorghe Lascu
Tile and brickmaker
Viscri

PHOTO

“I’m taking the training course in agro-tourism management. I have always dreamed of working with tourists,
but I didn't know I would have the chance to do it one day. I would like to prepare some rooms for
accommodation, have a big cooking place and sell traditional products. I hope that in two years I will be able
to make my dream come true! For now, I just hope I will pass the next exam of the MET course!
In life, one always needs to have both the courage and the dreams. But dreams come first, because without
dreams, nothing is possible.”

Sorina Matei
Agro-tourism management student
Criț

PHOTO

“Me and my brother, we are the seventh generation of blacksmiths in our family.
My grandfather was a blacksmith and so was his father. Our forge is 300 years old!
Before coming to Viscri, my grandfather lived in a wagon next to the city of Târgu Mureș. When he came to
this village during the communist period, he found work here and so he stayed.
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He taught us all about the art of being blacksmiths. It is an art and it has its own rhythm that comes from the
hammer.
I didn't go to school and I don't know anything about geometry... so to design a piece I actually have to
dream it first. I go to sleep and the next morning I do what I've dreamed during the night... Without MET we
would probably not be here, and our art would have disappeared. MET gave us the chance to continue with
our family's work. ”

Mati and Istvan, the Gabor Brothers

Blacksmiths
Viscri

PHOTO
“I was born in Mălâncrav, and I grew up with the Apafi manor house where I worked as I craftsman. It's been
almost 10 years I work at MET now, but the Apafi manor project is still my favourite project.
My story is simple. While I was studying to become a lawyer, I used to work as a craftsman in the restoration
of the manor house to earn some money during holidays. Then, when I finished my studies, I worked for
three months as a lawyer at the Sighişoara Town Hall, but that was all and not just enough for me. I had
discovered that I also liked restoring houses, so immediately after working at the town hall, I was again
employed by a restoration company created by someone who had also been the local supervisor of the
manor house work. One year later, an architect from MET asked me if I could estimate the costs of one
particular restoration work. I did it, and since then I work full time for MET.
I'm the project manager for a very big project in Alma Vii now, and I have big responsibilities.
I enjoy working at MET. I like working with people, and I like what MET has done in communities like
Mălâncrav, my village. What attracts me the most is being able to increase well-being in rural villages, and to
help people appreciate the value of their heritage.”

Alexandru Neagu
Lawyer, craftsman and MET project manager
Mălâncrav

PHOTO

“I believe that MET was like a gift from heaven! Through MET I now have the opportunity to do what I
couldn't do before, namely to work with tourists. I'm a kindergarten teacher, but I also love socialising with
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people from different parts of the world, showing them everything we have here, and cooking them meals
that can surprise them. Sometimes, the tourists are really impressed after leaving, as they didn't know they
could find such beauty and such kind hearts in Romania....
Now I work on holidays, and I still love what I do! Without MET all this would have been impossible! No one
would have come here..
MET brought the village to life.”

Aurelia Boitor
Kindergarten teacher and guest house manager
Mălâncrav

PHOTO

“Weaving is part of my family's heritage. My grandmother taught me, but I only began to weave as a hobby
since 1996. At the time, no one was weaving, and when I asked my mother to bring down the loom that was
stored away in the attic, everyone laughed at me.
In the beginning, I started weaving just to help my mother. But in 2002, an English professor working in the
manor house asked me if I could show him how my work was done. I showed him and he liked it. This made
me realise that I had some talent. Since then I started taking the job seriously!
I've woven every curtain of the manor house, and now I'm contributing in reviving the tradition. I'm also
selling my products online, and I have orders from everywhere in the world. It's incredible!
I love what I do. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't be doing it. My job is so relaxing, I never get tired.”

Elena Neagu
Weaver and entrepreneur
Mălâncrav

PHOTO

“I was working in Germany before returning to Romania. I first became acquainted with MET when I started
working at the manor house as a craftsman. I was trained by some English trainers from MET, and then the
Trust accompanied me in creating my own restoration company. I now have 20 employees, and we work all
over the region.
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Façades are what I like best! I'm proud every time a job is done and I see everything together... Usually
when the Saxons come back from Germany and see what we have achieved, they have tears in their eyes.
They feel grateful. They can’t believe it!”

Ernst Linzing.
Craftsman and company owner
Mălâncrav

If there is no more place, it could be erased!

PHOTO

“In 2010 I took MET's agro-tourism management training course. I was already retired, but I had the
opportunity and I said to myself, why not? And now I'm a guest house manager. I meet people from
everywhere, I cook for them and I really enjoy what I'm doing. I do not need this, I do it because I love it”

Maria Ganea
Guest house manager
Alma Vii

PHOTO

“I have been a craftsman since 1970. Working with leather is my true passion! I do everything with my hands,
and follow traditional methods.!

Before coming here, to the Cojocarilor tower next to MET offices, I was already well known in Sighişoara as
a craftsman, but I didn't have a place to work or a fixed place where to sell my products. I was roaming from
place to place when I encountered someone from MET who offered to let me install my workshop here, in
the citadel tower. I've been working here, next to and with MET, for many years now, and I'm so happy. This
is a great opportunity, I have a nice place to carry out my craft, and customers and tourists can also stop by
to see what I'm doing”.

Nistor Ioan
Leather craftsman
Cojocarilor tower, Sighişoara.

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PHOTO

“I'm from Moldavia, but I moved to Alma Vii when I married my husband who is a forest guard here. I've been
living in Alma Vii for almost 7 years now, and I can tell, it has been very hard to find a job here. Either one
travels to Mediaș everyday, which is very expensive, or one has to stay at home. However I met MET last
year and they told me they were looking for someone to become a community leader. I actually prefer calling
myself a “facilitator” now, as I don't consider myself as a leader, but just someone facilitating MET's job in the
village. I've have participated and encouraged every meeting MET has organised here with the community.
I'm now part of Alma Vii's association and I carry the keys of the restored church fortification and museum
with me. It's me who receives the tourists coming to visit the church! 1000 people have already signed the
guest book, and I can't believe how everything is changing for the good here. I'm very happy I had this
opportunity, I feel so full-filled...”

Simona Jacob

Guesthouse manager, association administrator and local leader

Alma Vii

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MULTUMESC MULT (here or at the beginning?)
Someone else you would like to add?

Caroline, Walter, Ursula, Cristian, Léo, Carmen, Eli, Eli's soups, Emil, Sara, Gerhild, Dietmar, Karl, Aurora,
Maria, Mariana, Angela, Izabela, Sandel, Zsolt, Noémi, Michaela, Adela, Andrea, Jessica, Jeremy, Mary, Anna,
Andra, Gabor brothers, Simona, Sorina, Daniel, Maria, Ernst, Elena, Ionel, Marcela, Alberto, Luciana, Pipi,
Canela, Le gens du café de place de la Réunion, Adam, Guillaume, Romain, Lucas, Taina, Ashkan, Lucia,
Marta, JP, Fisher, Adrian, all people from the communities of Viscri, Alma Vii, Malancrav and Crit, all people
who encouraged this book, and all those who are friends of MET or friends of mine.

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REFERENCES

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Hughes, A. (2011) Cultural Politics in Romania's ‘Saxon’ Villages: Considerations for
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Saxon Heritage in Transylvania.

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MET (2007) Lost and Found Transylvania.

MET (2012) Development Strategy of MET 2012-2017 “Building on our Past for a Sustainable
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Scruton, R. (1979) The Aesthetics of Architecture. Princeton Essays on the Arts.

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UNESCO (1999) Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania.

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Whelan, T. (Ed.) (1991) Nature Tourism. Island Press, Washington, DC.

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Online sources

www.accorhotels-group.com/en/sustainable-development/the-planet-21-program.html

www.almavii.ro

www.ecomunitate.ro/laslea

www.eeagrants.org

www.experiencetransylvania.ro

www.fortified-churches.com

www.globalheritagefund.org

www.horizonfoundation.nl

www.icomos.org

www.primariabunesti.ro

www.sibiul.ro

www.unesco.org

www.whc.unesco.org/fr/list/596

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BACK COVER

TO DO.

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