On the conservation of archaeological heritage: the case of the mural paintings in the cellars of Șerban Vodă Inn
On the conservation of archaeological heritage: the case of the mural paintings in the cellars of Șerban Vodă Inn

Summary/Abstract: Following the discovery of mural paintings in Şerban Vodă Han cellars, it seems that we can refer to a new kind of medieval images meant to protect and decorate the place: cellar icons.Given the way they were presented to the public by the authors of the archaeological explorations in 2007-2009, the three fragments of mural painting miraculously surviving in the ruins of the southern side of the Royal Han included two representations of Saint Nicholas and one Dormition of the Mother of God. Th e three icons disappeared from their initial place before being adequately researched. If the in situ study can be replaced by the photo evidence, if the lab survey can still use some small fragments recovered after the destruction of the Dormition of the Mother of God icon, other details which could have supported the date of the mural paintings are lost forever. They include graphites, often ignored, even if it refers to the conservation and restoration of a historical monument. In our case, we would have lost any information about the existence of graphites unless a closer examination of the photographic records to recompose the extracted fragments of Saint Nicholas icon would have allowed the discovery of a graphite including the year 7264 (1756).

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