Monasteries of Buzău County, Romania (fifteenth–twenty-first centuries)

Abstract

The aim of this project is to create a map at the scale of 1:275 000 of all Christian Orthodox monasteries that existed between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries, in the county of Buzău, Romania. This area has been one of the biggest centers of Orthodox monasticism in the country, in a time when monasteries were the main centers of culture, science and education. This paper describes how the map was created, while also explaining its purpose and the challenges that emerge in mapping the monasticism and its basic features. The project which underpins the map is unique because it integrates and synthesizes results from historical-geographical studies, which have not yet been depicted cartographically. The map, initially begun in 2012, is based on a large amount of information gathered from a number of collections of historical documents, which were analyzed, validated and complemented in several field campaigns carried out between 2008 and 2015. The procedure, performed with difficulty because of numerous gaps in historical sources and few archaeological evidence, intends to represent a cartographic model for illustrating a phenomenon that otherwise sought to avoid any social exposure.

The patrimony of wooden churches, built between 1531 and 2015, in the Land of Maramureș, Romania

“…The final cartographic material resulted from combining the DEM, photographs taken by the authors and processed under the form of pictograms, information and methods gathered from scientific paper-based bibliographic resources (Beconyte & Viliuviene, 2009;Ilieş, 2003;Irimuș, Vescan, & Man, 2005;Wendt, 2013) and maps (Baias et al, 2014;Beconytė et al, 2014;Buterez, 2016;Ilieș et al, 2013;Zupan & Franges, 2014), all supported and completed by rich information obtained from field mapping and documentation activity. The images gathered in the field, processed and shown under the form of pictograms, representing each and every church, were georeferenced by points and transposed in the system of known coordinates, establishing tie-points with geographical information system (GIS) data as well as a 20 m DEM.…”

“…By analysis through comparison with other specialty paper works having resembling topics (Baias, 2013;Baias et al, 2014;Beconytė, Eismontaitė, & Žemaitienė, 2014;Buterez, 2016;Ilieş et al, 2009;Ilieş, Wendt, Ilieş, Josan, & Herman, 2011;Ilieș et al, 2013;Patterson, 2001), we consider that our endeavor is new by structure, design and represented elements.…”

“…Based on methods and tools tested in the speciality literature (Baias et al, 2014;Beconyte et al, 2011;Beconytė et al, 2014;Buterez, 2016;Cataudella, 2004;Di Gregorie, Frongia, Piras, & Forresu, 2014;Ilieș et al, 2013;Ilieș, Ilieș, & Deac, 2015;Le Fur, 2007;Zupan & Franges, 2014), the structure was created and the working stages were defined. The creation of a database was the first step of this endeavor.…”