Urban Planning in the Area of Alba Iulia Fortress in the Years 1965-1988: Completed Projects and Abandoned Proposals

Abstract

In the first decade after the establishment of the Communist regime in Romania, the fortress of Alba Iulia was in a lamentable state of conservation, as revealed by the correspondence of the Directorate of Historical Monuments (DHM) and the National Institute of Heritage (NHI) photo library. The fortress was used by a military unit, the Wine-Alcohol Enterprise, GOSTAT, together with the regional museum and the two bishoprics, Catholic and Orthodox, but none of them possessed any legal documents in this regard. As the only ones concerned about the ensemble, the museum’s representatives sent numerous notifications to the DHM, who eventually initiated a long process that sought to clarify first and foremost the legal situation of the fortress, before assuming the research and restoration of its gates. The festivities that took place in 1968 on the occasion of the Great Union’s semicentenary gave the preservationists an opportunity to take important steps towards establishing the fortress as a protected area and suggesting new deployments of its improperly used monuments, in the framework of the 1967 Urban Planning Sketch. Unfortunately, the DHM’s lack of authority in questions of urban redevelopment, along with the growing involvement of the local bodies, who only complied with the Party’s recommendations, led to constant disrespect towards the legal provisions and the further destruction of the fortress.