Greening the cities of Romania – a survey of the intentions, projects, specialists and nurseries in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries

The Organic Regulations of 1831 and 1832 provided the first legal instruments for the “modernization” and “beautification” of the Romanian cities south and east of the Carpathians.
Local, but particularly foreign specialists were called by the rulers of the country and/or the municipalities to come and work in cities from the two Romanian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia and helped transform the image of the urban habitats.
They created projects for urban (re)development, housing, parks and gardens, urban plantings, etc., were involved in the implementation and/or monitoring of such projects and further supervised the maintenance of these works.
Based on archival information from public and private archives from Romania and abroad (London, Paris, Vienna, Rome, Brussels), the following paper will look into the official/public intentions for greening cities south and east of the Carpathians in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the projects designed particularly by French, German, Austrian or Swiss specialists for this purpose and the collaboration with Romanian and foreign nurseries involved in the implementation and even further maintenance of public parks and gardens or tree-lined avenues.
Also, the paper will emphasize the cultural value of the remnants of ancient works of urban greening and the ways in which such physical witnesses should be preserved for the future.

EHC2024: International Symposium on Urban Horticulture: from Vertical Farming to Planting Design

A. Mexi

organic regulations, urban greening, cultural heritage, historic gardens, public parks, historic urban planting

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1441.17