Santamaria-Orlea: MRA-ROU-San001
Type Sample Item
Sample ID
- MRA-ROU-San001
Sample Material Type
- Mural painting
Sample Sub-type
- fragment
Dimensions (cm)
- Length
- 1
- Width
- 0.85
- Height
- 0.55
- Notes
- largest fragment
Weight
- weight value (g)
- 2.16
- Notes
- all fragments together
Geographic Location
- Country
- Romania
- Place
- Santamaria-Orlea
Site/monument
- Romania (ROU)
Santamaria orlea
Calvin of Santamaria Orlea
Historical note about the site/monument
- The Calvin of Santamaria-Orlea, or the Reformed Church of Sântămăria-Orlea, is a church located in Sântămăria-Orlea, in Transylvania, central-western Romania. Nowadays, it celebrates the Reformed-Calvinist Mass rite. Built from Cândea family in the end of the 13th century, the church was originally Catholic and is one of the oldest in the Romanian area. In the middle of the 15th century, the church was enlarged in the western side. The building underwent a series of reconstructions, the most massive of which happened in 1908. The floor plan of the church is longitudinal and is organised in a single, long vaulted nave. On the exterior, there is a tower with single-lancelet and double-lancelet windows on the upper stories and located on the western façade. The high walls made in rough stone and huger natural stone at the edges are equally remarkable, together with magnificent portals and windows, with carefully executed columns and frames. The church is accessible by passing through a Romanesque portal on the south side. In the interior, the presbytery hosts a rectangular altar vaulted in crosses on the ogives and the ceiling is illuminated by narrow windows with semi-circular openings. On the western side, there is a 15th-century grandstand placed on an octagonal wall posts and separated by the bell tower body. The altar is located on the eastern part of the church. Generally speaking, the church reveals mixed features of the Romanesque and early Transylvanian Gothic style. Remarkable are the fresco mural paintings that decorated the whole of the church interiors.
Chronological period (sample)
- 13th-20th century
Support
- Support material type
- Lime-based mortar
- Number of layers
- 1
- Aprox. thickness (from bottom to top in cm)
- 0.6
- Colour (from bottom to top)
- White
- Material description
- Lime-based mortar with fine siliceous and lithic aggregates (˂1mm). Possible use of straw pieces as aggregates.
Finishing Layers
- Finishing layers material type
- Paint layer
- Number of layers
- 1
- Aprox. thickness (μm)
- 500
- Colour
- Red and orange
- Material description
- Red-orange paint layer
Finishing Layers
- Evidences of detachment. Variations in hue might be related to degradation processes.