Ileana Maria Kisilewicz
Senior lecturer, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Politehnica University Timișoara, Romania.
Ileana Maria Kisilewicz is an architect with an Advanced Master in Science of Conservation of Monuments and Sites in 1998, at the Raymond Lemaire Centre (University of Leuven in Belgium). During her advanced studies at the University La Sapienza in Rome, she assisted with project conservation methodology and works of carved-stone decoration. In 1999, after 2 years of pre-doctoral research on Italian architecture’s influence on Romanian territory, she obtained her PhD in Architecture in 2009. In 1999 and 2011 she assisted working sites in Venice on stone conservation and followed at ICCROM the Stone Conservation Course. Since 2001 she has been involved in projects funded by UNESCO for conservation of architectural heritage in Romania and education for young professionals. Between 2023 and 2024 she carried out extensive documentary research on the restoration projects in Bucovina, carried out in the 19th century, within the Romanian research grant HG 118/2023 with the support of the Austrian Bundesdenkmalamt. As a senior lecturer at the Politehnica University of Timișoara (Romania), Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, she teaches contemporary methods of conservation, history of town planning, tourism, and heritage and is entitled to conduct PhD theses in the field of architecture. Also, she holds an advisory position in the Romanian Ministry of Culture, Department of Cultural Heritage. She is registered as a specialist in historical architectural research, conservation-restoration of historical monuments, and stone conservation in The National Register of Specialists in the Preservation of Historical Monuments.
An Overview of the Research on the Preservation of Architectural Monuments in Bucovina done by the Central Commission1 in Vienna – 1853-1918
Keywords: Central Commission, Habsburg Empire, Bucovina, Karl Romstorfer, restoration
Abstract: The churches of northern Moldova (in Romania today), built between the 15th and 17th centuries, are masterpieces inspired by Byzantine architecture. Eight of them, appreciated for their authenticity and good preservation, have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for their exceptional universal value.2 The architecture of these constructions came to the attention of specialists from the Habsburg Empire at the end of the 19th century, through the means of exploratory study missions in Bucovina and Romania by the architects Joseph Hlavka, Julian Zachariewicz and Karl Romstorfer and through published descriptions in Viennese specialised publications. In Die Moldauisch-Byzantinische Baukunst3, published in 1896 by Karl Romstorfer, there are 35 churches which, in Romstorfer’s opinion, are the most important from the point of view of architectural history. In his concluding remarks, the author outlines the priority tasks of monument conservation activities. The information from these researchers was later retrieved fragmentarily by both Romanian historians of architecture and by researchers from outside the country. Other studies, published more recently, in the 21st century, as Bucovina. A travel guide to Romania’s region of painted monasteries and Medieval Monuments in Bucovina, presents very briefly the 19th-century contributions, to the pioneering studies regarding the conservation and restoration of Bucovina’s monuments. The current study seeks to bring to light the contributions of the Imperial Royal Central Commission for the Research and Preservation of Architectural Monuments in Vienna4, and affiliated architects, the works of which raised attention regarding Bucovina’s monuments.
1 It was the abbreviation of Kaiserliche Königliche Central-Commission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale [Imperial Royal Central Commission for the Research and Preservation of Architectural Monuments]. In specialized literature, the institution is identified with the acronym ZK.
2 Churches of Northern Moldavia are listed with UNESCO ID 598bis. All are churches of monasteries in the Suceava county – Arbore, Humor, Moldovița, Pătrăuți, Probota, Saint George of Suceava, Sucevița, Voroneț.
3 Karl Romstorfer, “Die Moldauisch-Byzantinische Baukunst”, [Moldavian-Byzantine architecture], Allgemeine Zeitung 16 (1896): 82-99.
4 From now on referred to within the paper as Central Commission (ZK).