The Movable Heritage of Drăghia

*Patricia Săsăran, Ancuța Țenter, Bety Burghele, Marin Cotețiu and Loreley-Diana Jianu*

#### **Abstract**

The movable heritage of the Drăghia village, Maramureș County, is still around today thanks to a handful of people who diligently tended to the aged objects forsaken long ago. The old wooden church, built in 1706, is today a museum in which some of the age-old ritual objects, as well as other type of objects, are conserved. The decorations of the church, an important aspect over time, include various objects which today can be considered movable heritage. In this regard, the icons or paintings were highlighted by decorating them with decorative towels, woven by the village's women. Other cloths, rugs and mats were also used for "dressing" the church. We will open the list of movable heritage objects with the key to the church, and tell its over 300-years old story. The icons, religious books, royal doors, banners, thurible, the two choir pews, the church bells, and the priest robes will complete our study. On the other hand, you can find an old shirt, a towel, a bench or some other object kept out of respect for their ancestors in almost every house in the village. The Radu families have impressive collections, having establishes a so-called personal museum.

**Keywords:** movable heritage, church, religious books, key, icons, table cloth

#### **1. Introduction**

Patrimonial artifacts of Drăghia Village, Maramureș county, exist today only through the benevolence of some people that are aware of their value and managed to take care of their family's heritage until today, despite the modernity taking over [1].

The village's church, built in 1706, has long developed into a museum, where one can have a glimpse of various objects used in old Christian rituals. Embellishment of churches was an important aspect in the old days. The icons and the paintings were framed and exposed with special handwoven textiles made by the women of the village. In the same time, carpets and other types of local made textiles were used for covering the floors or furniture in the church. Beside the church, almost in every house one can still find an old traditional shirt (ie), a hemp towel, a bench or several other objects kept out of respect for their ancestors' tradition. Most impressive are the collections coming from Radu family and Blenche family, that managed to create a small private museum.

The key, the icons, the old religious books, the altar doors, the church' flags, the censer, the two lecterns, the bells or the priest clothing will be part of our study.

#### **2. The key**

The first object in the series of patrimonial objects presented herein is the key of the wooden churches' front door. We'll take a moment to tell the 300 years key story.

The key from the old church is a specific one for the area. It is a long iron key, with a fixed part of 39 cm and a mobile part of 10 cm, acting upon a wooden closing system. An encrusted 19 cm wooden beam is set in motion by the key, therefore blocking the door. A mechanism that works flawless for more than 300 years (**Figure 1**).

#### **Figure 1.** *The key.*
