**6. Conclusion**

The wooden churches of Maramureș are perhaps the most significant visual symbol of the area. Considering that they have been around for several hundred years in these conditions, we can say that they did their job and played their role quite well.

However, their further survival depends on a few essential factors. Given that wood itself is not a weatherproof material par excellence and undergoes a natural process of degradation, it requires continuous specialized care and restoration, done with maximum awareness and knowledge of the work process. This process must involve substantial funds dedicated to these operations. Today's changing climatic conditions add up to our call for attention to the need for restoration work. Climatic conditions have been demonstrated to affect the art inside religious buildings, with painting suffering the most. Of course, we consider not only the

#### *Alteration of the Cultural, Religious and Architectural Heritage from Lăpuș Land… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105091*

perishability of wood as a material but also other factors that affect the structure of these constructions, such as displacement and changes in soil structure.

Perhaps the most important step for the preservation and further existence of this heritage of inestimable value must lead us beyond the actual preservation, which of course is essential and should be the starting point. Most of all, an educational campaign to make people aware of the spiritual and aesthetic value of this heritage in everyday life is absolutely necessary. Special attention should be paid to the learning and dissemination of this very special craft. If the craft of woodwork were still desirable and learned by young people in educational institutions if churches would continue to be built respecting the proportions and simple materials if the church painting would be executed in line with the values of simplicity and humiliation of the Maramures peasant and especially if the religious courts, Orthodox dioceses, would order works in this style, tradition, and heritage would not represent only an elitist concern or of those that are part of a museum context but would return to the circuit of everyday life. We must learn today how to build this type of edifice that represents our spiritual essence.
