**Abstract**

The aim of this chapter is to present information about the current environmental survey conducted in a wooden church in Draghia, Maramures County, Romania. The wooden church "Archangels Michael and Gavril" was built in 1706 and is registered as a category A historical monument in the national heritage. A mural painting of popular bills, in a precarious state of preservation, can be observed inside the church. A study was performed to analyze the correlation between the indoor/outdoor climatic parameters and degree of degradation in mural paintings. Additionally, an indoor radon screening was carried out in order to assess the potential exposure for workers and public. One of the most important environmental problems is the global climate change and its impact on the historical monuments in their natural space of conservation. The obtained results highlight how dangerous the climate can be in the long term regarding the state of conservation of the mural paintings inside the wooden church located in a natural environment.

**Keywords:** church, paintings, national heritage, physical parameters, natural radioactivity

## **1. Introduction**

The preservation and promotion of the existing cultural values are important issues in order to preserve the inherited physical and spiritual richness and to transmit it to future generations.

The preservation of wooden churches was not perceived throughout history with troubled times, with the same importance as today.

It is now understood as a moral duty to preserve this cultural and spiritual treasure, to be passed on to future generations. According to the new philosophy of heritage, the concept of conservation was imposed, which implies a scientific approach based on research. Risk factors on heritage objects have been exposed by different specialized studies [1].

The environment can present multiple factors causing heritage degradation, such as geographic, climatic, and biological factors. The interdisciplinary research helps the restaurateurs to know the general state of conservation from the perspective of the physical, chemical, and biological parameters which generated the current state. This knowledge is a necessity for the correct evaluation of the operations to be performed in the future: cleaning, consolidation, structural stabilization, hydrous, and chromatic [2].

The modern society is facing a rapid evolution technology with the price of high environment pollution. Additionally, climate change has become a priority on the list of the Sustainable Development Agenda of European countries [3].

Romania has a rich cultural heritage through the places of worship located throughout the country represented by wooden churches built over the centuries of Christianity. This fact is being favored by the political conditions specific to each period, as well as the accessibility of the construction materials and low cost [4, 5].

The wooden architecture represents one of the most magnificent examples of built heritage almost all over the world. They occupy an important place in the traditional building in Russia, North and Eastern Europe [6]. Unfortunately, all historical monuments can be affected by different factors under natural environmental conditions, i.e., aging of the materials, lack of maintenance, inadequate use, or natural hazards [7]. A better understanding of the structural behavior of these buildings is a crucial step to prevent social, cultural, and economic losses [4].

Arch, one of the historical regions of Romania. Over time, it was part of Dacia, the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Austrian Empire. For about 170 years, between 1526 and 1699, it was autonomous, under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, under the name of the Principality of Transylvania. In this capacity, it played a significant role in the 30-year war, on the part of the Protestant coalition. With the imperial victories on the anti-Ottoman front, Transylvania came under Habsburg administration, but formally retained its statehood until 1867,

*A Survey of Physical Parameters and Natural Radioactivity in the Wooden Church…*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92063*

Transylvania is an important province of the Romanian political space, with a history that is strongly reflected through its multicultural particularities and the material evidence of its inhabitants. In time, heterogeneity, both ethnical (Romanians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Germans, Jewish, etc.) and confessional (Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Neoprotestants, etc.), materialized into religious edifices

The northern area of Transylvania is the land of Maramureş, Lăpuş, Chioar, and Codrului, where we found over 100 wooden churches built since the seventeenth

All wooden churches (main map) belong entirely to the Orthodox and Greek-Catholic confessions. Among these, there are eight remarkable churches included in the UNESCO world heritage list [12–16]. Built of wood, they continue to exist today thanks to the skill of the craftsmen and to the historical monument status enjoyed

The land of Lapuş is the land of wood, tradition, and monasteries. In this region of Maramures, the time seems to have remained in place, and people have kept the centuries-old traditions. In the area of Lăpuşului, the remains of the authentic dowry still remain, from the ancestral architecture to the style, shape, and size of the households. Here you can admire the old wooden houses, with narrow porches (logs), supported by ornate oak pillars, glued with clay on the floor, shaded by garlands of vines, the large courtyards, and before, to the oilfield, the small kinder-

**3. Presentation of wooden church "Archangels Mihail and Gavril,"**

Drăghia is a small village in the land of Lăpuș, in Maramureș County. The first mention of the village dates from 1393 with the Hungarian name of Dragusfalva

being governed by governors appointed by Vienna.

[9, 10].

**Figure 1.**

*Map Lăpuș Country.*

century (**Figure 1**) [11].

**Draghia**

**205**

by 33 of the edifices (LMI, 2015) [17].

gartens, flowers, shaded by plum, pear, or cherry [18].

This study aims to be the first in a larger project focusing on monitoring the physical parameters of temperature, humidity, and natural radioactivity, inside wooden churches or walls with interior murals painting that are in an advanced state of degradation. The study was conducted in the wooden church of "Archangels Mihail and Gavril" in the village of Draghia in the Lapuș Country.

Determining the relative humidity (rH) of the air inside the church is the first step in the study—humidity is one of the most important causes of degradation being suffered by churches historical monument, especially those lacking waterproof insulation [8].

An essential condition is to know the history of the church, its characteristics, the geographical position, the previous restorations and consolidations, and the current degradation state. The action of degradation factors is cumulative and the consequence is not necessarily immediate, but over time, they can cause significant losses.
