The Prince's Foundation and Romania

HRH The Prince of Wales has a long-standing interest in and passion for Romania. The Prince of Wales's Foundation Romania (PWFR) was established in 2015 to take forward His Royal Highness's charitable work there.

Through this initiative, HRH aimed to provide relevant skills to local communities by delivering practical courses and programmes. HRH’s representatives worked with local communities to meet their needs and focus on building on their skills and knowledge to improve the quality of their lives.

In addition, a complementary heritage preservation programme provided a unique opportunity to learn restoration techniques with real on site experience enabling people to secure jobs in the sector Fand help with the wider effort of preserving Romania's built environment.

In addition, the Foundation engaged with farmers and small producers of high value artisan food to help them find new markets and grow their businesses.

The Prince’s Foundation, with their friends and partners in Romania, are now looking to develop and deliver the next phase of HRH’s vision for the area.

Projects and Programmes

We are working with a variety of partners to deliver a comprehensive educational footprint and to increase the amount of training and educational activity taking place in Romania.

The Ambulance for Monuments. For more information on this programme see here.

Summer Schools for Architecture. In 2020 The Prince’s Foundation worked with OAR (The Order of Architects of Romania) in supporting the work of 11 summer schools across the country. We plan to maintain and expand this programme in the coming years.

Online map of Romanian craftspeople. Increased need and a lack of proper identification of craftsmen has been a hindrance for the development of quality architecture in the fields of both conservation and ecological architecture. In 2020, over 200 hundred new craftsmen were added to the existing records of about 500 craftsmen that are promoted through an online map. The project is run through OAR (The Order of Architects of Romania). See here for more information

Tile Exhibition Pavilion in Apos. The pavilion is built brick by brick each year since 2016 after a student competition. The contemporary design is approached with traditional bricks and a stone foundation. Architecture students and young professional get in touch with the traditional materials and get to know the construction possibilities.

Conferences and Events. We plan to host a series of conferences, workshops and events bringing together key stakeholders from across the country – and in some cases internationally – to promote knowledge-sharing and best practice in design, conservation and craft.

Textiles. There was previously a one-off programme delivered and developed over two years, to support predominantly unemployed women from rural areas to learn new skills and earn a living. Much like the craft training area, there has been a great deal of enthusiasm expressed for how we can continue this work, particularly given our expertise in this area. We also very much look forward to working with Semne Cusute - a programme that was put on hold during the pandemic.

Publications. “The Saxon House in Transylvania. A Guidebook for the conservation of ancient buildings” is one of the most important publications in the field of conservation in Romania. The book is a powerful educational instrument with an urgent need for reprinting. This is one of a number of publications that we plan to refresh and reprint as part of this strategy.

For more information on how to get involved with the work of The Prince's Foundation in Romania see here.