Initiatives / Experiments / Visions
Heritage of Timișoara
Project description
Heritage of Timișoara is a cultural intervention project in Timișoara’s historical neighbourhoods that aims to promote the city’s cultural heritage, to raise awareness regarding the importance of protecting and preserving this heritage, and to encourage cultural tourism. The project, which has a powerful interdisciplinary dimension, was present between 2018-2018 in the historical neighbourhoods Iosefin and Elisabetin.The first phase of the project is the research, documenting and mapping of the built environment, an action carried out with the help of a team of volunteers. Previous editions of the project have generated (and continue to do so) an accurate database of historical buildings in Timișoara. This was possible with the help of a customized online application, a tool developed in-house in 2017. The database thus obtained is available to the public through the online platform www.heritageoftimisoara.ro/, a permanent tool that supports cultural heritage education for the protection of Timișoara’s historical buildings.The second part of the project consists of interpreting and generating artistic content based on the information gathered during the first phase. Local artists create illustrations depicting historical buildings in their current state of conservation and showcase them in public spaces during public events organized in the project. Between 2018-2019, 38 such illustrations were created and turned into post cards that members of the public could send to their loved ones all over the world, thus disseminating the stories of the buildings in Timișoara.Putting together people and stories, Heritage of Timișoara brings to light the importance of valorising local built heritage. The project is relevant for the inhabitants of historical neighbourhoods as it presents the values that they have and deal with in their day to day lives. The lack of education regarding build heritage, regarding history and the stories of the place result in a lack of care towards local heritage, both from an emotional point of view, as well as from a legal one. The project wishes to improve on this by increasing the level of attachment between the inhabitants of historical neighbourhoods and the buildings in which they live.
Author's presentation text
PRIN BANAT Association was founded in 2016 as a natural continuation of the editorial project with the same name, with the purpose of documenting and promoting local values and encouraging cultural tourism in the historical region of the Banat (which today covers parts of Romania, Serbia and Hungary). Medium and long term, PRIN BANAT Association takes responsibility the following objectives: to identify, to inventory, to document and promote the purposes of the historic and cultural heritage, natural and immaterial (traditions, old ways, gastronomy, etc.) of the historical region of Banat; raising awareness and drawing the attention of the communities regarding the degradation of the cultural immobile heritage of the historical region of Banat; encouraging actions of cultural cooperation and the implication of those communities in civic activities.
