Church heating became generalised in the 20th century and caused significant damage to murals, painted woodwork, organs and other heritage objects, which had been preserved in good condition up to that moment in the historic churches. The article briefly summarises the relevant causes of the damages and deals with the churchgoers’ thermal convenience requirements. Then it presents the requirements regarding the heating of historic churches, the heating systems encountered in the country, their advantages but also drawbacks and finally details the results of the Friendly Heating European Research Project aimed at the optimal heating of historic churches (EVK4-CT-2001-00067). The article highlights the need of proper environmental parameter monitoring of historic churches from the perspective of the suitable heating system selection, the assessment of its objective effects, as well as the early identification of the conditions that would damage murals, painted woodwork and heritage objects. Keywords: historic churches, heating systems, thermal convenience, pew heating, Friendly Heating, damages, murals, painted woodwork, organ, heritage objects, temperature, relative humidity, environmental monitoring

The fact we were able to maintain as many original parts as possible from the Gresham Palace, a significant building of the Hungarian Art Nouveau architecture, is due to its powerful architectural character. The study presents the technical solutions that were implemented during the palace’s conservation, among which the most complex tasks were the main elevation’s conservation and the renewal of the rendering. Among the interior decoration, the hardest challenge was the replacement of the tiles manufactured by the Zsolnay factory in Pécs. Keywords: Art Nouveau architecture, Gresham Palace, stone façade, conservation, Zsolnay pottery.

More than 70,000 NGOs are registered in Romania and they are more or less working for the well-being of the society. Part of them are professional organisations, whose objectives are not only to organise community benefit programs, but also to stay strongly connected to research of some scientific field. The research topic was strongly connected to the professional non-profit organisations whose main field of activity is the preservation of built heritage. Keywords: professional non-governmental organisations, cultural heritage, built heritage, databaseKeywords: Art Nouveau architecture, Gresham Palace, stone façade, conservation, Zsolnay pottery.

The building no 54-56 in Budapest District VI (also called Terézváros), Nagymező Street, disposing over an 11,000 sq m area was built between 1900 and 1903, on the basis of the plans of architect Ernő BALÁZS. This was the first building in Budapest which was planned and built with the purpose of hosting a telephone central office. Its style displays the need for buildings of the contemporary telephone technology, and the appreciation of the telephone, as a new technological innovation, the almost cultic esteem shown also in the quality of the building. Since 1900 the telecommunications technologies changed. The endeavour of the once revolutionary, modern, “prestige”-like building to serve the old technology with an exemplary accuracy became obsolete; moreover, one might say it became even comical. Since it lost its original function, despite its former good condition, the building became endangered. On the one hand the peril consisted in the series of rebuilding aiming at conforming the building to the telecommunications technology of a specific age, which considered only primary technical aspects instead of architectural considerations. On the other hand the building is endangered by the fact that today’s up-to-date telecommunications technology requires only an insignificant part of the total area of the central office. The once magnificent building, having lost by today its function, was offered for sale. The architect’s task consisted in the definition of the new function of the building, the analysis of the aspects arisen during this definition process, the formulation of theoretical considerations, accordingly the surveillance of the planning process and of the implementation. Despite the austere economic conditions, the accomplished building functions in an exemplary way of making use of its capacity at maximum. Keywords: Telephone Central Office of Terézváros District, rebuilding, conservation, rehabilitation, function

Continuation from issue no. 3/2013 of the Transsylvania Nostra Journal.

The historic load-bearing structures can often be considered exceptional. All through its history, humanity has had the opportunity to build high-performance units, sub-units or elements. After identifying the terminology concerning the historic load-bearing structures, the characteristics of certain exceptional load-bearing structures are approached as prerequisites imposing an exceptional response. Certain exceptional interventions are also approached, referring equally to the mechanical behaviour, to ensuring resistance and stability, as well as to the protection of heritage values. Keywords: exceptional load-bearing structures, exceptional interventions