Rumania: Complejo de Resita

http://csr.www7.50megs.com/istoric.htm


An important programme for the
documentation and conservation of the mining
and metallurgical landscape is bearing fruit
around Resita and Anina in the Banat.
“Industrial heritage in Mountainous Banat-
European Value and Integration potential”
developed a chart to define both material and
intangible values, and the relationships
between both.
Anina Mine is in the process of closing. Coal
mining began in 1790. The main pithead
boasts a very large twin tandem engine of
1910, made in Budapest. It was supplanted by
a Russian winder in 1974, its headgear wheels
superimposed at right angles on the older
ones. A second shaft, Gustav II, is being filled.
A washer, workshops, large power station
(1898), volunteer fire station (1885) and neat
rows of miners’ houses complete the picture. A
future economy based around a visitor
experience, cutting new galleries at 60m
depth, was put forward on advice by Belgian
consultants. Some delegates suggested that
conservation of what exists above ground might
be a higher priority. The Anina-Oravita
mountain railway, 1861-9, 14 tunnels and 10
viaducts over 33.4 km, was recently saved
from closure and may prove an economic and
tourist lifeline.
Grebla hydro electric station, 1904, draws on
an extensive water-management system in the
hills above Resita. UCMR Machinery Works
makes turbines, cranes and locomotives.
Several examples of older steam locomotives
(1872 onwards) are displayed in a park, but
Resita is dominated by the CSR, now TMK,
steelworks. The two blast furnaces were
recently reduced to one and even that is
threatened as the steelworks consumes itself.
Having passed from American to Russian
owners, banners referring to the first coke-fired
iron works of 1771 proclaim an ancient
heritage. A collection of equipment is put aside
for a museum. Continuous casting was recently
installed so the old and the new may both be
celebrated together.
In Timisoara, a superbly-kept art nouveau
power station and an excellent outstation of the
Ministry of Culture and Cults rounded off a
specified for interior masonry surfaces.
Future. While much remains to be done, the
Roundhouse Authority has accomplished the
largest task by securing and stabilizing the
buildings. These fine industrial buildings of the
mid-19th century have been overhauled and
tuned up for another hundred-plus years.
Presently, they are being used as great
industrial pavilions for community use and
trade shows. We hope that tomorrow they will
assume a larger and more significant role of
interpreting industrial architecture and
engineering, labor history (as the site where
the great strike of 1877 began), Civil War
history (featuring numerous attacks and
Stonewall Jackson’s great train heist),
railroading history, and local social history.
(With thanks to Patrick Harshbarger, Editor,
SIA Newsletter)
wwoidrled
1998 view of the Martinsburg Shop complex
before work began.
Photo: Matthew W. Grove.
7
crowded itinerary. Momentum was maintained
throughout under the patronage of TICCIH,
ICOMOS Romania and the Romanian
Association for Industrial Archaeology, the
essential link in each case being Irina
Iamandescu. The many participants from
abroad got an opportunity to learn once more
of the close international cooperation in the
field of historic engineering. There we can
sharply define another reason to preserve the
prime examples mentioned above of our
European heritage.