On 13 May 2026, the Romanian Cultural Institute in Beijing organized the conference “Restoration Dialogues: Sharing Experiences and Innovative Methods in the Conservation of National Heritage”, delivered by Florian Petrescu, Associate Professor at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest and expert member of the Scientific Committee for Heritage Documentation (CIPA) within the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), at the headquarters of ICOMOS China in Beijing. The delegation of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Beijing was welcomed by the President of the Chinese Association for the Protection of Monuments and Historic Sites.
The President of the Association, Song Xinchao, presented the general situation of the Association and the relevant activities carried out by it. The two sides expressed their willingness to further strengthen the in-depth cooperation between China and Romania in the field of cultural heritage, to promote exchanges between specialists in the field of cultural heritage protection from the two countries, and to facilitate the sharing of technologies and information. Also participating in the exchange of views were Zhang Jianhua, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, Dang Anrong, Vice President of the Association’s Digital Heritage Committee, as well as Gao Feng, Director of the Institute for the Conservation and Restoration of Murals, Polychrome Sculptures and Painted Decorations within the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage.
Professor Florian Petrescu delivered the presentation entitled “Restoration Dialogue: Sharing Experience and Innovative Methods in the Protection of National Cultural Heritage”, during which he shared Romania’s experience in the protection of mural heritage. Starting from the evolution of technological means such as precision measurement, spatial modelling, environmental monitoring and visual reconstruction, he analysed the role of digital technologies in diagnosing the deterioration of mural paintings and in the authentic reconstruction of the original image.
Professor Petrescu presented Romania’s practical experience in heritage documentation from five perspectives. First of all, he reviewed the early applications of digital technologies in the field of heritage protection in Romania, including explorations regarding the application of early information technologies, digital photogrammetry and digital scanning, as well as laser scanning and other basic technologies. Subsequently, he presented the international developments in the specialized field and the latest trends in knowledge, mentioning in particular directions such as the construction of heritage databases, digital reconstruction, hyperspectral image processing and the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.
Referring to the current situation of heritage documentation in Romania, Professor Petrescu presented the digital transformation project of Romanian cultural heritage financed by the European Union. The ePatrimoniu platform, created within this project, achieves the complete integration of the various existing databases concerning cultural heritage. Up to the present, field surveys and digital recordings have been carried out for at least 20,000 historical monuments throughout the territory of Romania, of which 2,000 monuments have benefited from three-dimensional digital processing, including point-cloud scanning, photogrammetry, LiDAR scanning, as well as the capture of aerial and terrestrial panoramic images through various technological means.
Among Romania’s nine World Heritage sites and the numerous heritage categories distributed throughout the territory of the country, more than 80% possess valuable mural paintings. The multifunctional geographic system for historical monuments developed by Professor Petrescu’s team also has applications in the field of mural paintings.
Taking as an example the mural painting restoration project of the Chapel of Bistrița Monastery, Vâlcea County, Professor Petrescu comparatively presented the scanned images from before and after the restoration of the chapel’s mural paintings and explained in detail the graphic restoration archives stored in the system, as well as the method of calculating the surface areas of the zones affected by detachments of the pictorial layer, illustrating in a direct manner the concrete application of digital technologies in the conservation of mural paintings.
Professor Petrescu showed that the development of digital technologies advances from one day to another, the pace of updating being extremely rapid, while the equipment itself has a limited duration of use. In this context, the manner in which the long-term stability of digital heritage documentation can be ensured has become one of the central issues of the field of heritage documentation.
During the presentation, he referred numerous times to the Venice Charter, emphasizing that, while digital technologies are used to support heritage protection, the principles of heritage conservation must be strictly respected. Especially in the restoration of mural paintings, the principle of authenticity must be defended, so that the application of technologies and heritage protection may develop in a coordinated manner. Representatives of the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, the Digital Heritage Committee of the Chinese Association for the Protection of Monuments and Historic Sites, the China Cultural Heritage Information and Consulting Centre, and the China Cultural Heritage Exchange Centre also participated in the exchange.
Professor Florian Petrescu is a researcher in the field of geospatial sciences and digital heritage documentation and an expert member of ICOMOS-CIPA. Since 2003, he has been teaching at the Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest (UTCB), holding the position of Associate Professor. Petrescu is among the first researchers in Romania who applied digital cartography, spatial modelling and remote-sensing technologies in the built environment. His research directions include urban vulnerability, climate pressures, risk mapping and the structural behaviour of historic buildings. Through photogrammetry, remote sensing, three-dimensional reconstruction and GIS-based stratigraphic analysis, Petrescu has contributed to the development of the technological foundation that supports the formulation of policies for the protection and restoration of cultural heritage, especially in the field of religious and historic buildings.
