Parohia Cofetăria: Industrial, Religious and Communal Space. A Case Study on Patrimony as Inherited from Communism and its Transformations

The fall of communism, more than three decades ago, set in motion a strong religious comeback in Romania. This increase in Romanians practicing religion was felt across all denominations not just the Orthodox. In order to cope with the sudden increase of churchgoers, a large number of places of worship were built in a relatively short period of time. In some places, where material resources were limited, part of the industrial heritage left behind by communism was rearranged and transformed into a religious space (e.g., chapels and monasteries). The case study presented below shows the spectacular transformation of a former food laboratory into an Orthodox chapel in the early 2000s. Even if it is a small town, it reflects many of the questions and dilemmas when reconverting a religious space into a secular space and vice versa, namely: political and religious interference in small semi-rural communities, new forms of community cooperation between believers and members of the clergy, but also advancing modernity and accompanying changes in everyday religious life (la religion en train de se faire – fr). This study also shows how the Orthodox canonical requirements related to the consecration-construction of a sacred space were adapted to a completely atypical space – a sign of the vitality and adaptability of the church at the beginning of the millennium.