**Abstract**

The architectural heritage is considered the most important category of cultural heritage; therefore, it requires special attention in the current state of climate change. The heritage presented in this chapter includes a total of 26 wooden churches located in Lăpuș Land, framed by UNESCO to the national heritage A and B category. Built on the present grounds or relocated, these are between 200 and 400 years old. Their degradation/alteration has been imminent over the decades due to aging and the socio-political conditions of the times. Alteration is a common notion in relation to the passage of time. The changes in environmental physical parameters, however, raise issues of sustainability of the buildings due to degradation. This paper wants to bring to the readers' attention the importance and vulnerability of murals in wooden churches of Lăpuș County, which are an invaluable treasure, in terms of constructions, objects and traditions that require a civic responsibility for future generations in these difficult geopolitical conditions overlapping climate change.

**Keywords:** cultural heritage, climate changes, wooden church, degradation

#### **1. Introduction**

The northern area of Transylvania is the land of Maramureș, Lăpuș, Chioar and Codrului, where we can find over 100 wooden churches built since the 17th century [1, 2]. **Figure 1** the present chapter approaches a brief narration of the current state, assessed through visual inspection, of 26 wooden churches located in Lăpuș Land, belonging to Lăpuş Archdiocese, the Orthodox Diocese of Maramureş and Satu-Mare, Targu-Lăpuș, Romania. This study will present an interdisciplinary approach to the addressed topic.

These wooden churches, of particular cultural and spiritual richness, are brought to attention in order to highlight their vulnerability in the context of such strong and obvious climate changes that are currently taking place. The wooden architecture represents one of the most magnificent examples of built heritage all over the world [3], of which, an important part is represented by the wooden

#### **Figure 1.**

*Map County of Lăpuș (from https://teofil-ivanciuc.weebly.com).*

churches, often found scattered throughout Eastern and Northern Europe, and Northern Asia.

Built on the present grounds or relocated, their workmanship is established to be between 200 and 400 years old. The majority of those churches still existing today were built between 17th and 19th centuries and are represented by one type of church, namely "Orthodox church", built for the Romanian Orthodox communities [4–7].
