Historic monument, rehabilitated through PAPI Cândeşti

13.11.2009


An old desire of the villagers in Cândeşti , Botoşani County, to rehabilitate "St. Dimitrie"'s church, moved from Ukraine to Romania, is going to become reality with the help of the PAPI centre in the village that got powerfully involved in the project.

The PAPI Cândeşti officials got actively involved in getting the necessary authorizations for the church's renovation - the church has been established as a historic monument - as well as the necessary money. "St. Dimitrie"'s church was first built in 1777 in Pătrăuţii de Jos, Hliboca District, Ukraine. Afterwards, it was moved in Cândeşti, Botoşani County, "with the approval of his Holiness Archbishop and Metropolitan Vladimir of Bucovina and Dalmatia, at the expense of the worthy believers in Cândeşti and with the support of Protopope Ioan Hostiuc", says an official document of the time. The actual move was made in 1912. Basically, the church was rebuilt in Cândeşti village using materials from the Ukraine counterpart.

« Thus, in Cândeşti commune, belonging to the Rogojeşti parish from the Siret region, this church built from the materials of the old church in Pătrăuţii de Jos at the expense of the regional fund in Bucovina and of the believers, in the year 1912, having everything needful inside, was made holy today, through our delegate, protopresbyteriate Ioan Hostiuc »
writes the donation act for the Cândeşti church

First of all, the local administration in Cândeşti, through the PAPI centre, initiated the restoration of the historic document which attests the church's removal from Pătrăuţii de Jos to the village in Botoşani. After these preliminary procedures, the actual restoration of the church will be taking place. According to the restoration plan, using funds from the Ministry of Culture, the building will be consolidated, starting with its foundation and ending with the walls.

The church will be brought back to its initial architecture, with the outer walls being placated with wood. Also, the mural painting inside the church will be redone, and the restoration teams will also attempt complex modernizing works, both for the church's structure and its finishings.

And since we’ve mentioned the area where the church was first placed, Hliboca District in Ukraine, we should also say that the PAPI centre has also helped the local authorities in Cândeşti develop a one-year trans-border project with three communes in this district. The project - “Education – a connection point between Botoşani County – Romania and Hliboca District – Ukraine” – implied educational experience exchanges, including meetings between teachers on common interest themes, as well as periodical training and informative meetings and education know-how exchanges between the schools of the two partner villages.

Presentations of the different types of education systems took place during the seminars organized with the teachers of the two villages, as well as discussions on education methods for different categories of activities (such as artistic and foreign language ones). There was also talk on the different traditions and local customs – popular dances, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and Easter customs - , on the means of teaching different subjects, on the methods of learning and evaluating school children, and lastly, on encouraging an ecologic behaviour among them. Within the “Education – a connection point between Botoşani County – Romania and Hliboca District – Ukraine” project, two camps were organized for school children attending these two partner schools, camps which included artistic and sports competitions.

The Cândeşti RECL took part in everything mentioned above, including drafting the necessary paperwork to start the trans-border cooperation project.

On-line resources:

12 wooden churches will be restored and included in the tourist circuit

A history of Cândeşti

Votes: 2
Keywords: churchrestorationCândeştieducationtrans-border