Located deep in a mountain massif in southwestern Romania, a group of students and young architects are trying to breathe life into a dilapidated thermal spa that was once a resort for Europe's elite.
Spa Herculaneum is famous for its natural warm sulfur spring water, which was originally used by the Romans and later by the Habsburg royal family.
After a visit in 1852, the Austro-Hungarian emperor Francis Joseph declared that it was "the most beautiful resort on the continent".
But after the fall of communism in Romania in 1989, this historic resort - including the grand old Neptune's Baths that was once a favorite hangout for the elite - was abandoned and left chronically neglected.
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"I was sitting in front of the Neptunon bath building and all the people passing by were complaining about its condition," says Oana Kirila, a 26-year-old architect from Timisoara.
After her visit to the site as a student in 2017, she wrote a blog in which she expressed her dismay at the state of the Grade A 19th century monument.
"I felt a very close connection with the building and the whole place, I was blown away by its beauty," she told the BBC.
"When I got home, all I could think about was that building."
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Her article made a strong impression on thousands of readers and she was inspired to found an NGO with her friend and fellow architect Kristina Apostol.
Together, the two launched the Herculaneum Project, with the ambitious goal of saving the historical complex of this thermal spa.
As you stand in front of the magnificent 3.000 square meter building, you begin to understand the scale of the task they face.
It's a chilly winter's day and the pungent smell of sulfur wafts from the shallow river below, as its warm spring gurgles gently as it has done for millennia.
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"Our interventions, which were mostly focused on the roof, can hardly be seen," says Kirila, who also works full-time as a project manager in a construction company.
"But we did a lot of different interventions."
The team of about 25 volunteers consists of architecture students, young graduates, web developers and various others.
So far, they have managed to collect about 75.000 euros, but they estimate that the complete renovation of the historic spa will require about 12 million euros.
Since the project's inception, they have added 12 roof segments, raised supporting columns and protected various internal and external relics - all important interventions that helped to preserve the old building.
"Parts of the building would most certainly collapse. It's a Sisyphean job, but we firmly decided to preserve the building," says Kristina Apostol (28).
"One of our more idealistic goals is to have everything from the historical Spa of Herculaneum protected by UNESCO."
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Neptune's bath has an entrance with grandiose stairs, after which you enter a huge vaulted vestibule with a fresco.
In the center is a decorative Hungarian ceramic fountain, now secured by wooden scaffolding and covered with a tent wing to protect it from the constantly falling pieces of rubble.
Once inside, the eerie beauty of the building comes to life with the occasional sound of bricks and mortar constantly falling away.
The noise echoes through the long, almost symmetrical corridors and spa chambers on either side of the lobby.
"This arch would collapse," says Apostol, pointing to the massive area now covered with oak scaffolding and a temporary tin roof.
For now, according to the law, all works must be reversible.
"We intervened on the wall that collapsed, but if we hadn't, the entire roof would have collapsed," she says.
The large old spa is a significant integral part of the wider historical resort of Banja Herkulane.
This resort consists of an old casino, a baroque villa named after Empress Elizabeth of Austria, wife of Francis Joseph, and a wide cobbled promenade lined with hotels, the central decoration of which is a statue of Hercules.
"The concept was health and happiness," says Oana Kirila, as we tour the casino building from the outside, on the other side of the sulphur-rich river.
It's easy to imagine Banja Herculana as the lively, luxurious resort it once was. But the contrast with her past glory days is more than striking.
Today it seems dilapidated, a spacious new town right next to the ruined historic old one, dotted with brutalist communist buildings.
Obviously dissatisfied with the slow progress of the works, Kirila feels the responsibility not to give up.
"You have sulphurous water, resources and EU funds available - it's a shame the government isn't using them," she says. "This place could bring a lot of money to both the state and the community."
The BBC sought comment from Romania's culture minister but did not receive a response.
The group's short-term goal is to collect around 30.000 euros to finish preventing the irreversible deterioration of Neptune's Bath. "This building needs constant maintenance," says Kirila. But the volunteers dream of a brighter future and, in the end, a completely renovated, functional spa.
Kristina Apostol imagines a bathroom in the center of a complex that includes a museum, bookstore and cafeteria.
For now, the young team will have to be content with trying to shore up the essential building in the once-glamorous resort.
"There is a limit to how much civil society can do, after that it's really up to the state."
Watch a video about the fall of Ceausescu's dictatorship in Romania in 1989
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