New threats to Europe's heritage

In Eastern Europe, communism has fallen. UNESCO is worried that cultural heritage may now fall, too. David Tresilian writes from Bucharest
The towns of post-Communist Eastern and Central Europe may now be threatened in ways they never were in 40 years of Communism. That was the conclusion drawn at a UNESCO international seminar on the management of the region's historic cities held in Bucharest, Romania.
The seminar, supported by the French government and attended by representatives of UNESCO and the Council of Europe, brought together architects, urban planners, legal experts and conservators from across the region. Many of them gave evidence of disturbing development, demolition, or property speculation in Bucharest. Property in Central and Eastern European cities such as Budapest, Bucharest and Vilnius, until 1989 the exclusive property of the state, has either been restored to its original, pre-Communist owners, or privatised as the countries concerned move towards a market economy.
Under the Communist regimes that ruled the countries of the region until 1989, all property belonged to the state, rents were either low or non-existent, and, though often neglected to the point of collapse, buildings in the historic towns and cities of the region were protected from demolition or development by the absence of a property market. As a result, historical areas of outstanding architectural and cultural importance successfully weathered four decades of Communism. Examples include the early twentieth-century art nouveau apartment buildings of Budapest or the Austro-Hungarian style villas and residential areas of late nineteenth-century Bucharest. Development now threatens to spoil their historical and architectural character.
Dr Robert Pickard is coordinator of a task force set up by the Council of Europe to advise the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe on legal means to conserve their architectural heritage.
"The real threat comes during periods of rapid change when legislative frameworks to protect the heritage and the political and social will to conserve it have not yet caught up with the wider changes in economy and society that threaten it."
In Western European historical towns and cities, the built environment is carefully managed to preserve historical character. Inappropriate new building is forbidden. Protective building codes are enforced. The result is that areas of outstanding cultural significance that make up an architectural ensemble, such as the mediaeval Marais area in Paris or the eighteenth-century New Town area in Edinburgh are preserved intact for future generations to enjoy.
But in Eastern and Central European towns, such management skills and legal tools seldom exist. As a result, the growing number of tourists, soaring property prices, the dispossession of the cities' original inhabitants and the appearance of new office developments and international retail outlets endanger the character of historic areas.
There is an urgent need "to develop mechanisms to control pressures on urban landscapes generated by tourism, real-estate speculation in a market economy and the provision of new infrastructure," Dr Pickard commented. If such mechanisms are not developed, then the real challenge to the survival of the region's historical towns and cities may be just beginning.
According to Andras Roman, a Hungarian participant at the seminar and an architect and conservator, new development in the centre of Budapest over the past decade has compromised the art nouveau character of the streets. Development has also meant rising prices forcing out original residents. What was an area of small shops and apartments is now a business district dominated by office space and lacking social mix.
Similarly, according to Jurate Raugauliene of the Old Town Renewal Agency of Vilnius, Lithuania, developments in Vilnius city centre over the past decade have meant that the area has lost 40 per cent of its pre-1989 population. A once lively residential area of small shops and apartments is now increasingly becoming an outdoor museum. Tourists alone are catered for and behind the old facade is costly office space. Leaping prices have pushed the original residents out.
Sergiu Nistor, professor of architecture at the University of Bucharest, believes that the fall of communism has improved prospects for the conservation of the country's historic towns and cities. But it has brought threats, too.
The totalitarian period in Romania, ending with the execution of the Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in December 1989, was marked by arbitrary culture policy and poor management of cultural heritage. Official neglect was compounded by "socialist development" policies in the 1980s.
Today, however, Nistor says, cooperation agreements between Romania and British, French and German specialist agencies, impossible under Communism, have considerably improved matters. There is growing public interest in preserving and revitalising what is left of Romania's architectural heritage. Even Britain's Prince Charles has intervened. Last year the prince visited the Romanian town of Sibiu when it was declared part of "Europe's common heritage" by the Council of Europe and by UNESCO.
According to UNESCO's Anne Lemaistre, organiser of last week's Bucharest seminar, the organisation is committed to conserving and revitalising Central and Eastern Europe's historic towns and cities. The seminar is intended as part of a process of network-building among professionals and government representatives in the region. Such a commitment, she said, had already been proved by the recent inclusion of the historic Baltic cities of Tallinn and Vilnius in UNESCO's World Heritage List.
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