Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 20. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2007)

FURU ÁRPAD: A Torockó értékvédő program

PROGRAM OF MONUMENT PROTECTION IN TOROCKÓ The Program of Monument Protection in Torockó has tried to secure an active, stimulating protection for the monuments of the settlement for 10 years. On the initiative of professionals from the area of monument protection, it was founded with the aim of hindering the rebuilding of valuable, endangered built heritage of Torockó. The Municipality of the 5th District in Budapest continuously supports the Program of Monument Protection, whose main tool is an assistance system, performed by Transylvania Trust Foundation, with head-quarters in Kolozsvár. Since 1996, the owners of 130-140 real estates get the annual financial support for maintenance, a sum equal to a one-month salary. The three conditions of putting the money at their disposal are included in a contract: the owner does the maintenance works around the house, does not change the valuable elements of architecture and for advice on rebuilding, he asks the Foundation and acts according to the suggestions. The support for renovation, distributed in the confines of a competition is appropriate to carry out a rebuilding of a greater scale. The Program of Monument Protection in Torockó is based on cooperation between the owners of monuments and the local municipality. In the first place, the strategy of monument protection has the aim of perpetuation and tending of the remaining values. It does not try to achieve a previous state, nor the stiffening of the present conditions. However, it aims to reach a time, when traditional values can find their place in the future life of the settlement, based on healthy economic development. In the first decade of monument protection, 96% of the supported real estate owners paid more - often repeatedly - for maintenance from self-support: a sum, which was 100-150% more than the original support. With the help of the renovation support, distributed in the confines of a competition, expert opinion, design, renovation and planning works have been carried out in the case of approximately 70 buildings. (As the effect of the Europa Nostra Prize in 2000, 111 buildings were renovated during one summer; in the case of 20 buildings total gable-reconstruction was performed.) Part of the program's strategy is the protection on the basis of proprietary rights. The professional basis for the program is a computer database, containing information (collected in 1996) about the 160 traditional real estates and a continuous architectural research. Besides the short-distance financial motivation of supports, the advantages of rural tourism, having a longdistance financial advantage were also explained to the owners even at the beginning of monument protection, highlighting the fact, that the renovated building can be used as a guest house. As a result of the increasing tourist attraction, thanks to monument protection, approximately 40 owners acquired the necessary permissions - partly with the help and contribution of the Foundation - for operating rural tourism, so tourism has become the strongest branch in the village. In November, 1999, according to the decision of the Europa Nostra, a federation for cultural heritage, the Program of Monument Protection in Torockó was awarded an Europa Nostra Prize - which was the first time concerning Romanian monument protection. In the awarding, the complexity of the program was influential besides the results: the monument protection in Torockó is a model to be followed concerning relations reaching across borders and the monument protection program, built on cooperation between owners of houses and a professional civil organisation in a region, where economic and social changes definitely endanger the built heritage.