2019.03.14
Herculane Project
Cultural Heritage-Reactivation through Architecture, Cultural and Social Tools
Oana Chirilă
In a time where cultural heritage has found itself at a crossroads in Romania, young architecture students have risen in a movement that fights for architectural and social reactivation of the abandoned city center of Herculane Baths.
Once called by Emperor Franz Josef himself “The pearl of Europe”, Herculane Baths is defined by a perfect communion of amazing landscapes, cultural heritage and natural resources. Having these spectacular assets, but a tumultous fate after the fall of communism in 1989, its heritage is now in a degrading state, being abandoned for almost 30 years.
How can we reactivate cultural heritage defined by a universal value?
How can we give back the heritage to the local community?
How can the appropriate stakeholders be brought together in the construction of an integrated development that aims to regenerate an abandoned area?
Herculane Project was spontaneously created with the purpose of creating an integrated development of the historical city center. We started off as a group of young architecture students, but in a few weeks we grew into a multidisciplinary team, united by the idea that only by acting together we can succeed. Our actins had a national impact in a very short time, and with every step that we took we put the heritage at its necessary value point, creating a bridge between people, architecture and future strategies.
And there, where local administrations and cultural institutions failed to act, members of the society have taken action and started to change the course of events for a community defined by its old glory and beautiful heritage.