These traditional houses, over 400 years old, are attracting more and more Romanians and are now being restored using sustainable practices.
In the Danube Delta, just across the border from Ukraine, lies the small Romanian village of Chilia Veche – a town known for its colourful buildings, but there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Nearly 400 years ago, populations of “old believers” of Russian origin, called “Lipovenes”migrated to the region following a split with the Russian Orthodox Church. Their cultural heritage remains strong to this day, particularly in architecture.
Mihail Popescu, 21, is restoring an old traditional house in Lipovina. Our correspondent Alida Mocanu went there to find out more.
“Even if the road is not welcoming, we at least try to make the houses of Chilia Veche as welcoming as possible. There is this reason. Our ambition was not to adapt to the material conditions of the time and we did not want to bring concrete, we did not want to bring iron, we did not want to bring all these modern materials and we wanted to keep the tradition alive as much as possible. We learned to work with organic materials, with earth, with reed.” explains Alida Mocanu.
“Here you can also find a double-leaf door that someone from Chile, and this is very important what I am telling you now, wanted to throw away, wanting to replace it with a double-glazed door. Yes, I paid a pittance for this extraordinarily beautiful door because this door was going to be burned and/or cut up, with all that that means and the frame” says Mihail Popescu, restorer of old houses.
On the small construction site of one of these houses, Mr. Nicolae, a craftsman and specialist in sustainable house structures, is experimenting with his new techniques. “You see, this is art! Here. Look, from this horse manure that we put in this sieve, this is how we do it. It is not an easy job, but we are used to hard work in the countryside. Very important, we have to work with yellow earth. It has to be glued, so film this wall, from top to bottom. Everything is made with this kind of material”he enthuses.
Mihail Popescu’s goal is to preserve the history of these traditional Lipovean houses through sustainable practices. One day, he hopes to welcome tourists here as well.
