ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

The urbanistic evolution of the city of Drobeta Turnu Severin in 19 th century 49The real economic life of the new town began in 1851. Some buildingshave been built in the harbor: one for the Austrian Agency and Customs Office -as an annex of the Austrian Agency-, another for the Shipyard-meant to repairthe ships that circulated on the Danube and that spent the winter there. The roadlinking Severin from Craiova was also open in 1852. The fact that this road wentround Cerneti led to its rapid fall. The road between Craiova and Turnu Severintogether with the Danube made a real center of the western area of Oltenia.The urban development of the town continued to grow in the 6 th and 7 thdecades of the nineteenth century. Due to the fact that the entire surface of thetown was extended, an important need arose in 1860: to install barriers at themain roads of the town: that leading to Craiova, to Orsova, to the Agency and tothe marketplace. These barriers were meant to check the foreigners/outsiders thatentered the city.If the authorities agreed on giving huge facilities to the persons thatintended to settle in the new town, in the 5 th and 6 th decades, due to the great dealof persons moving into town, the initial scheduled surface was becomingunsatisfactory. The prices for buying land doubled, and the settling conditionshardened, being expressly mentioned that the money should be paid beforestarting to build and the process of building should end in maximum 3 years 17 .Seeing the obvious progress of the town, the inhabitants from Cernatiasked ruler Barbu Ştirbei (1849-1856) in 1853 on a formal visit to allot themsome land in the eastern part of the town. In this way, there has been made anadjustment to the initial pan of the new town. Approximately 200 places havebeen added and, unfortunately, the entire symmetry of the initial plan wasbroken: 22 streets have been curved in the eastern part, added to the curve madein order to get out of the town, respectively, the road leading to Târgu-Jiu 18 . Thecompletion was approved in 1856, and in the following spring these lands havebeen auctioned. The inhabitants of Cerneti were dissatisfied by this decision.Despite after both the initial plan and the 1856’supplement, more than 300pieces of land remained unsold, in 1859-1860, another plan’ supplement hasbeen made. A great deal of pieces of land 19 has been added to the western part ofthe town.Due to the immense interest for constructions, especially in the areas with a viewto Danube, the Communal Council decides a new expansion of Severin. Theplan was put into practice in 1865, October, 18 th . 1000 pieces of land in the threeareas of the town have been added, though most of them were to the ruins of theRoman Caster and to the foot of the Bridge of Traian, again, unfortunately, nottaking into consideration the plan. According to this new supplement, the buyerswere obliged to end the construction of their house in 4 years after buying the17 National Archives, Dr. Tr. Severin, The Town Hall of Tr. Severin, dossier 2/1856,p. 610, 611.18 V. Demetrescu, The History of the Town of Severin, Turnu Severin, 1883, p. 35-36.19 Ibidem, p. 37.