Biserica de lemn din Ieud Deal. Restaurarea picturilor murale

Abstract

The Wooden Church of Ieud Deal is one of the most important wooden monuments in Maramureș, with a documented history dating back to the 16th century and an architectural form consolidated in the late 17th – early 18th century. Built from fir beams using the blockbau technique and enriched with an extensive painted ensemble executed in 1782 by Alexandru Ponehalschi, the church represents a rare synthesis between local vernacular construction traditions and post-Byzantine mural painting.

This publication documents the complex conservation and restoration intervention of the interior mural paintings and the wooden support structure, carried out after decades of progressive deterioration caused by fires, biological attacks, inappropriate interventions, and structural modifications. The painted layer, executed in the a secco technique on a thin and fragile ground, was severely affected by moisture, detachment, and loss of cohesion, requiring an extremely delicate and phased approach.

Through the scale of the interventions and the refinement of the technical solutions, the restoration at Ieud becomes a reference study in the conservation of wooden-support mural painting, restoring the coherence of a medieval ensemble long concealed beneath successive layers of deterioration and earlier interventions.