The Destiny of a Political Legacy: Hunedoara Steelworks between Material Obliteration and Memory Revival

The present Romanian heritage preservation context seems to be dominated by a more common feature specific to the ex-Socialist / Soviet countries and that is the predilection towards the pre-communist historic symbols in order to revive (manipulate) the national identities traumatized by the years of the Communism. Thus, in the last 25 years, in Romania, it was noticed the predilection to stress the pre-1945 historic value of the built heritage while anything slightly associated with the communist years (1945 – 89) was, and still is, regarded with resentment, and thereby, subject of uncontrolled interventions, abandon and demolition. This aspect will be analysed through the case of the industrial heritage considered nonetheless a vulnerable typology of the 20th century built environment, but widely associated in Romanian context with the Communism due to the 1945 – 89 hyper-industrialisation process that shaped territories and communities. More precisely, the town of Hunedoara represents such a ‘Communist metallurgic icon’ (Goga O., 1969) despite its complex and multi-layered industrial development starting with 19th century. Its status changed in the post-1989 context when under the visible effects of deindustrialisation and its almost complete demolition became labelled as symbol of ‘Romanian decay’ (Andresoiu L., 2007). Therefore, the attention will be directed towards the post-1989 destiny of this industrial territory through the analysis of the economic and urban revival mechanisms initiated here, of the actors involved in them and their impact in the local perception of the industrial legacy in parallel with the development of the legal framework in matter of heritage preservation. Hunedoara also illustrates a case of conflict and duality in matter of perception of industrial heritage between the academic world and decisional reality: while in the first environment Hunedoara’s industrial history gained multidisciplinary attention (Ioan R. 2007, Marginean M. 2013, Tiganea O. 2013), the latter context is dominated unanimous by its perception in matter of non-value and thus destined to perish. Hunedoara case brings forward a common feature of Romanian context in which the disappearance of derelict industries occurs at a faster pace than the change in attitude and growth of social awareness and civic duties. But this material disappearance generated a wave of identity revival of the local community and reconnection with the industrial past