River as center and/or barrier. The peripheral urban landscapes of Romanian Danube cities

For the cities on its shores, Danube represents a matrix of development, the origin of growth and the birth of a specific landscape, shaped up to the horizon of the transformations they have suffered during centuries. The landscapes of these cities gradually emerged and overlapped with the Danube natural landscape, taking over its conditions and constraints. Everything that could have influenced the man-made landscape, also have been distilled and adapted: the land declivity, the water’s strength, the wetlands, the forests, the wilderness areas, the islands, the fishing boats, the people themselves. In the context of looking for a Danube brand, as the paper is part of the INTERREG-DANUrB project, beyond its existing borders, limits, barriers, the Danube urban landscape seen both from the inside (from the city), and from the outside (from the water) is more than an impressing image, but speakes about how the river have given birth and created the people life opportunities, and also how it have imposed strong barriers and limits for urban development. For the Romanian Danube cities, the peripheral landscapes have assimilated both the natural character, the ante-industrial identity, and the remains of the (post-) industrial age, now showing a combining pattern of different and contradictory elements.