Why the tower of a historical monument church in Transylvania collapsed. The Ministry of Culture comes with the first explanations
Photo source: gurasalajului.ro
The tower of the Reformed Church in Cehu Silvaniei collapsed on Tuesday evening, at the end of four days of successive warnings and accelerated degradations that exceeded any initial technical estimate, according to a detailed chronological report made public on Saturday by the Ministry of Culture in a press release.
“On January 30, 2026, the removal of plaster from the outline of the tower up to the upper elevation of the buttresses was completed. During this operation, it was found that the degradation, cracking and quality of the stonework are significantly more severe than the estimates resulting from previous research. The executor reported detachment of lithic material, and it was ordered to immediately stop the removal of plaster, install local supports in the door gap area and organize a verifications in the presence of all the decision-making factors, set for February 3, 2026”, says the said press release, quoted by Agerpres.
On the same day, archaeologists excavating the nave of the church noticed leaks of dust and fragments of mortar in the room on the ground floor of the tower, and films were installed to monitor the detachments.
Later, dust leaks were also reported in the area of the vault above the organ tribune, as a result of which glass witnesses were installed to monitor the cracks, it was ordered to stop the use of the bells, the preventive information of the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations and the request to divert high-tonnage road traffic from the vicinity of the church.
The evolution towards collapse has become irreversible
“Following the checks carried out in the construction site, the solution was adopted to implement a system of scaffolding and support of the lower part of the tower on the outer western facade, combined with a similar support system on the inside, to prevent the development of a possible collapse scenario”, add the representatives of the Ministry of Culture.
The evolution towards collapse became irreversible in the afternoon of February 3, when the technical monitoring indicated a dramatic acceleration of the degradations, i.e. one of the internal control witnesses detached again, and fragments of plaster began to fall from the soffit of the vault.
Despite the fact that at 15:00 the site managers and the design team requested the acceleration of scaffolding to prevent the development of a possible collapse scenario, the structure finally gave way less than three hours after the last check carried out on the ground floor of the building.
The Ministry of Culture emphasizes the fact that the recent archaeological excavations, carried out until the day of the collapse, had no direct connection with the foundation of the tower, but were carried out exclusively in the nave of the church and in the north and south collaterals, without carrying out any excavations at the level of the tower.
On January 6, the specialists of the National Heritage Institute carried out the 3D scan of the monument to complete the technical expertise, while the remaining valuables are recovered from the rubble under strict supervision.
The Ministry of Culture announced that it continues to monitor the situation and will publicly communicate the results of the technical and administrative investigations.
