One of the basic conditions for long-term successful work in a society is that the knowledge and attitude related to the activity be passed on continuously from one generation to another. This is especially true for historic building conservation, which requires extremely complex, multidisciplinary expertise and an approach that is shaped across a long span of time. As this type of knowledge cannot be fully acquired at school or university, knowledge transfer during work plays a highly important role. The condition for this is the gradual change in the generations working in the profession, the gradual involvement of young professionals in the performance of their tasks. As a result of the reorganisation of the heritage conservation institutional system after 2010, the fluctuation within the historic building inspection staff has increased enormously, the experienced staff disappeared very suddenly from the system, and the horizontal relations among the employees disappeared almost completely. As a result, the approach of prioritising the protection of heritage values virtually disappeared from the agencies working in the field.

The article analyses the causes and consequences of generational change without knowledge transfer.

Keywords: generational renewal, historic building conservation, heritage conservation authority, knowledge transfer, awareness

As bell ringing was an important element of mediaeval liturgy, wooden belfries and later stone bell towers were erected next to village parish churches. For a long time, it was believed that on the territory of the Ciuc Deanery, located at the eastern border of the Transylvanian Bishopric, a series of stone bell towers were built next to churches in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Following the research of recent years, however, it became clear that this question cannot be explained by a single “construction wave”. Archaeological excavations and dendrochronological studies proved that certain stone towers started to be erected earlier, already in the 13^th-14^th centuries, other mediaeval towers, which were not known earlier, have been identified, but at the same time, it became evident that a significant part of the towers considered to date from the late Gothic period were built later, in the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

Keywords: belfies, bell towers, dating, archaeology, dendrochronology, sources, Eastern Transylvania

In 1934 Tibor GEREVICH, a well-known figure of the Hungarian-Italian diplomacy, became the Chairman of the National Committee for Historic Monuments. Until his leading role, interventions on historic buildings were carried out only in the form of so-called stylistic restorations or extensions, but GEREVICH had the Hungarian architects follow the modern Italian methods in the field of historic building conservation. In this regard, his most famous project was the reconstruction of the Royal Castle in Esztergom between 1934 and 1938, which represented neutral additions and became an illustrious example for the Athens Charter. The text examines the fact that during the design process an attitude favouring stylistic reconstructions can also be observed in parallel with the modernist conservation solutions.

Keywords: stylistic restoration, National Committee for Historic Monuments, Royal Castle in Esztergom, conservation practices

The 17^th-century wooden church in Calna (Cluj County) fully fits into the typology of Romanian wooden churches in Transylvania built before the 1698 communion with the Roman Apostolic See. It is not one of the most spectacular ones, however, something makes this church exceptional. The article explores the qualities of the church that contribute to this exceptional character and focuses on certain general aspects related to the conservation of small rural churches and their surroundings. 

The article analyses the causes and consequences of generational change without knowledge transfer.

Keywords: church architecture, vernacular architecture, wooden church, historic building, wooden barrel vault, wooden tower, belfry, conservation