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On the wrong side of the track: railways as urban boundaries in the towns of the First Transylvanian Railway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2010

CRISTINA PURCAR
CRISTINA PURCAR*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 72–6 Observatorului Str., Cluj-Napoca, Romania
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Abstract:

This article addresses the morphological and functional implications of the railway as an urban boundary, by studying seven towns in Romania, connected by the First Transylvanian Railway (1868–70). The research highlights similarities and differences as to the initial railway insertion, the subsequent growth patterns and the differentiation appearing between areas adjoining the railway tracks. The article argues that although a ‘wrong side of the track’ did not emerge everywhere, the segregation and lack of urban amenities affecting the areas which could be thus labelled is rooted in the failure to render the railway barrier permeable and to generate complementarity rather than subordination between the two sides of the track.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , May 2010 , pp. 66 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 Ammer, Ch., The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (Boston and New York, 1997), 540Google Scholar.

2 The British phrases website, posting by J knows on 3 Jun. 2004 at www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/32/messages/300.html, accessed 25 Jan. 2008.

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4 This was the name of the society, funded mostly by Austrian capital, which initially built and owned the railway: in German, Actiengesellschaft der k.k. priv. Ersten Siebenbürger-Eisenbahn. There are two ways in which scholars refer to the territory called Transylvania: some mean the intra-Carpathian region, corresponding to the historical Great Principality of Transylvania (1526–1865), others mean the whole north-western region of today's Romania, corresponding to the territory united after World War I to the Old Romanian Kingdom, including, besides the former area, also the regions of Banat, Crisana and Maramures. The first meaning is used here. Thus, the First Transylvanian Railway is indeed chronologically the first line; otherwise, the Oravita–Bazias line, opened in Banat in 1854, should be considered the first one.

5 See for instance: Strach, H., ‘Eisenbahnen mit Zinsengarantie’, in Strach, H. (ed.), Geschichte der Eisenbahnen der österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie, 13 vols. (Vienna, 1898–99), vol. III, 166–7Google Scholar; J. Gonda, ‘Das Eisenbahnwesen in Ungarn seit 1867’, in Strach (ed.), Geschichte der Eisenbahnen, vol. XII, 19–20; Vajda, L., ‘Prima cale ferata din Transilvania’, Acta Musei Napocensis, 8 (1971), 287–98Google Scholar; Muresan, H., ‘Proiecte privind construirea primelor cai ferate in Transilvania’, Anuarul Institutului de Istorie si Arheologie, 17 (1974), 268–79Google Scholar; S. Retegan, ‘Dieta de la Sibiu 1863–1864’ (Institutul de Istorie si Arheologie Cluj Ph.D. thesis, 1974), 325–36; Bellu, R., Mica monografie a cailor ferate din Romania, 6 vols. (Bucharest, 1995–2001)Google Scholar; Rossenger, G. and Jensen, J.H., ‘Transylvanian railways and access to the lower Danube’, East European Quarterly, 29 (1996), 427–48Google Scholar.

6 Anghel, E., ‘Evolutia retelei stradale a orasului Arad in raport cu reteaua de comunicatii pe apa si pe uscat’, Historia Urbana, 1–2 (1995), 155–62Google Scholar.

7 New Arad (Romanian: Aradu Nou, Hungarian: Újarad) also developed south of the river Mures during the eighteenth century. Nevertheless it was not only a different township, but it also belonged to Banat, a different Habsburg province at that time.

8 Salt was extracted in Transylvania and conveyed on wooden rafts on the Mures. Kovach, G., ‘Date cu privire la trasportul sarii pe Mures in sec. X–XIII-lea’, Ziridava, 12 (1980), 193–201Google Scholar.

9 M. Von Kunitsch, 1824 travelogue, in G. Filitti et al. (eds.), Calatori straini despre Tarile Romane in secolul al XIX-lea, 3 vols. (Bucharest, 2004–6), vol. II, 65–8; R. Walsh, 1824 travelogue, in Filitti et al. (eds.), Calatori straini, vol. II, 136.

10 Comparison based on the military maps from the 1760s and from the 1870s. The garden-like aspect of Deva by the mid-nineteenth century was mentioned by foreign travellers: from the castle hill, Deva displays ‘thousands of planted trees which surround the houses, conferring the image of a garden’. de Gerando, A., Siebenbürgen und seine Bewohner (Leipzig, 1845), part I, 236Google Scholar. My translation.

11 Hungarian: Szászváros, German: Broos.

12 Hungarian: Gyulafehérvár, German: Karlsburg/Weißenburg.

13 Anghel, Gh., ‘Alba Iulia in secolul al XVIII-lea. Schimbarea vetrei orasului medieval’, Historia Urbana, 1–2 (1996), 63–84Google Scholar.

14 Velica, I., Istoria Petrosaniului in date (Petrosani, 2004), 18Google Scholar.

15 Lavenschi, Gh., ‘Cateva date privind schimbarea aspectului pietei din Arad in cursul secolului al XIX-lea’, Historia Urbana, 1–2 (1995), 193–8Google Scholar.

16 Hungarian: Máriaradna, German: Maria Radna.

17 Hungarian and German: Lippa.

18 R. Walsh, 1824 travelogue, in Filitti et al. (eds.), Calatori straini, vol. II, 136; M. Von Kunitsch, travel from 1824, in Filitti et al. (eds.), Calatori straini, vol. II, 5. The Mures valley represented the administrative frontier between county Arad in Hungary and the province of Banat, which was administrated alternatively by the Habsburgs and Hungarians until 1867, the date of the dualist pact between Austria and Hungary, when both Banat and Transylvania were incorporated into the Hungarian half of the dual monarchy until its dissolution in World War I.

19 The line Alba Iulia–Teius–Razboieni, opened in 1871, continued the network of trunk lines connecting the main Transylvanian towns and cities. The route Oradea–Cluj–Teius–Brasov was completed in 1873, and the connection with Romania in 1879. Bellu, Mica monografie.

20 St Pascu et al., Alba Iulia 2000 (Alba Iulia, 1975), 290.

21 Hungarian: Piski.

22 Hungarian: Dédácz.

23 Among the most prominent industries, the railway rolling stock factory, located on the southern side of the artery leading from the station to the west, began its activities in 1891 and has continued developing ever since.

24 Fluid commercial and worker commuting traffic was actually made possible by the local railway line from Arad, opened in 1906 and already electrified in 1913, running along the main road right-of-way. Also known as ‘the green arrow’, the local line Arad–Podgoria had a gauge of 1,000mm. It was the first electrified railway line in Eastern Europe and the eighth in the world.

25 Deva's population increased from 2,706 inhabitants in 1857 to 8,654 in 1910, while Orastie's population, initially bigger, registered a much slower growth rate: from 5,469 (double Deva's population) in 1857 to only 6,937 in 1910.

26 Alba Iulia's industrialization only began towards the end of the nineteenth century and remained rather limited. The most prominent pre-World War I industries were the grain mill, built in 1894 next to the railway station, one of the biggest in Transylvania, and the spirits factory.

27 Anghel, ‘Alba Iulia in secolul al XVIII-lea’, 75.

28 Municipiul Alba Iulia, Consiliul local, Hotărârea nr. 19 din 30.01.2007, on-line: www.apulum.ro/ro/hotarari/scr/detaliuhot.phtml?Id=2914, accessed 15 Feb. 2008.

29 After the First Transylvanian Railway was taken over by the state in 1884, the steel centre of Hunedoara was connected to the trunk line through a western branch and a marshalling yard was organized to the south-east (Simeria Triaj). By 1899 the workshops employed 265 workers and 40 apprentices, and there were more than 100 dwellings for the personnel. The space capacity of the works was of 12 locomotives and 42 carriages stored inside, and of 12 locomotives and 120 carriages stored in the open air. Kovács, L. (ed.), The History of the Hungarian Railways, 1846–2000 (Budapest, 2000), 471Google Scholar. The railway works continued developing after Transylvania's union with Romania in 1918, and new workshops were constructed, especially in the 1920s and 1930s.

30 Besides repairing the war damage, large work spaces were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

31 Since 1990, the railway works have continued their activity as a commercial society with a majority of state capital, focusing on the passenger and freight wagon repair.

32 Kronstadter Bergbau und Huttenaktienverein.

33 See Anghel, E., ‘Influenta cailor ferate asupra dezvoltarii urbanistice a orasului Arad’, Muzeul Arad. Studii si comunicari, 3 (1996), 257–64Google Scholar.

34 The Arad–Deva line was only electrified between 1982 and 1985. Bellu, Mica monografie.

35 Anghel, ‘Influenta cailor ferate’. Emil Anghel's article also provides an outline of the main urbanistic projects dedicated to the station's connections with the town before and after World War I.

36 In Romanian: Cartierul Functionarilor.

37 In Romanian: Suseni and Joseni.

38 A. Costache et al., ‘Human vulnerability to environmental change in the mining communities of Romanian Carpathians. Case study: Jiu valley’, paper on-line www.start.org/Program/advanced_institute3_web/Final%20Papers/Costache (revised).doc, Feb. 2008.

39 Lipova had been a prosperous small town ever since the middle ages, as denoted by its dense street network and relatively densely built urban fabric, while Radna was more a street village with secondary streets branching off here and there along the thoroughfare. Also the river front typology reflects the difference: while Radna aligned the backs of gardens along the waterline, in Lipova a street runs parallel to the river. While continuous street fronts are typical for Lipova's central area, they are only sporadically present in Radna. Ethnically too, while Radna was inhabited by Romanians and Hungarians, in Lipova, the German colonists (Schwaben) prevailed.

40 See also Ioan, A., ‘Arhitectura ortodoxă şi tema identitară. 1900–1942’, Ianus, 5–6 (2002)Google Scholar, on-line: http://inoe.inoe.ro/ianus/Augustin%20Ioan%202.htm, May 2008.

41 Indeed, the inhabitants of Simeria's northern side are obliged to cross the railway boundary, almost as much as those of the southern side, as they take the national highway, use the railway or the bus stations or go to the main Orthodox church, to the town's only high school, or to the stadium.

42 Alan Waterhouse defines the boundaries of the city as the articulation of the two contradictory but equally universal human inclinations, the nostalgia for stability and the nostalgia for escape. Waterhouse, A., Boundaries of the City. The Architecture of Western Urbanism (Toronto, Buffalo and London, 1993), 4–5Google Scholar.