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En-Route International Seminar

Bridging the Limits.

BorderScapes as continuities and contexts

Bucharest and Drobeta-Turnu Severin (Romania), 23rd May – 26th May, 2024

Bucharest and Drobeta-Turnu Severin (Romania), 23rd May – 26th May, 2024
Organized by “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning of Bucharest and UNISCAPE.

Called by the Romans Danubius – the god of rivers, by Napoleon the king of European rivers, and by Nicolae Iorga, the richest in gifts, the Danube is the most expressive and defining feature of the Southern Romanian borderscape. The river’s sinuous course crosses the landscapes of Europe, connecting in time and space capitals, communities and places steeped in history.

The gorge that the Danube has carved at the gateway in the country has assumed, throughout history, a strategic role, while defining a cultural area of exceptional importance, generating architectural values and a specific model of living.

Reconsidering the existing relationships within the Danube borderscape and settlement pattern, and drawing on existing or hidden landscape landmarks, the intention of the workshop is to find ideas and solutions for the conservation and management of the cultural values of this area through a research approach, started with the Ada Kaleh – The Never Never Island workshop developed at Water.Architecture.Venice Ateliers – W.A.Ve – 2021 edition, organized by Università Iuav di Venezia and coordinated by Analogique (Claudia Cosentino, Dario Felice and Antonio Rizzo), which was followed  by the workshop held in Bucharest at UAUIM, Ada Kaleh – a Waterscape for the Future, in October 2021. An example of this is the enhancement of the potential offered by the submerged island Ada-Kaleh, still present in the collective memory.

A broader objective of the seminar is to raise community awareness towards the perspective opened by the European Landscape Convention, to create a system of cultural landmarks as key points for a future development strategy for the area, taking into account the archaeological heritage built up since the Roman antiquity period – the ruins of the Trajan Bridge linked to the Roman castra system on both banks of the Danube, medieval fortress system, the Șimian island and the two large natural parks: Đjerdap National Park on the Serbian side and the Iron Gates Natural Park on the Romanian side of the Danube.

The event is dedicated to the International Danube Day, 29th of June.