The Role of Master Builder Lajos BÁGYUJ in Transylvanian Historic Building Protection

The protection of Transylvanian historic buildings between 1950 and 1970 is intertwined with the name of master builder Lajos BÁGYUJ, whose valuable work is not sufficiently acknowledged even today. His writings related to the tasks, solutions, success and significance of conservation recall his most important conservation works. As the coordinator of conservation projects carried out between 1950 and 1970, most of them targeting places of worship, master builder Lajos BÁGYUJ was an outstanding figure of historic building protection after 1948 in Romania, more specifically in Transylvania, who is still not appreciated in his actual worth, even today. Two of his most important professional assignments were the rebuilding of the vault of St. Michael’s Church in Cluj-Napoca within the comprehensive conservation of the edifice, and the conservation of the Calvinist church in Kogălniceanu street in Cluj-Napoca. The Ars poetica of Lajos BÁGYUJ, as a craftsman of historic building protection, is still valid today: “Historic building conservation is nothing short of technical and artwork carried out with the aim of preserving architectural artefacts. Our aim is to achieve the greatest level of authenticity both in the content and the form of historic building.”