MAMAIA

The built heritage of the Romanian seaside is composed not only of remarkable ancient vestiges, protected by their inclusion in the List of Historical Monuments. The Romanian seaside is also the site of an emblematic legacy for modern Romania, a more recent built heritage of undeniable value, unfortunately less prone currently to be discussed for legal protection.

We are referring to the modern ensembles and buildings, mostly raised during the 20th century, which managed to transform the Romanian coastline into an elegant space for tourism and marine leisure, comparable to other contemporary developments achieved throughout the entire world. Both the architecture from before the Second World War and the architectural-urbanistic ensembles from the communist period are examples of high-quality modernist architecture, which aligned Romanian architecture with contemporary achievements in Western Europe.

The Mamaia Resort has long been considered one of the most successful developments dedicated to mass tourism, symbolic for Romanian seaside tourism in general, as well as a leading example for the modern urban planning of the post-war period at a national and international level.

This more recent heritage is neglected due to a lack of awareness and is being destroyed by relentless real‑estate and commercial development that yields questionable results; if these trends continue, it may soon survive only in history books. Modernist villas on the Eforie seafront have been mutilated, the monumental art ensemble in Costinești has almost completely disappeared, and the urbanistic and landscape quality of the Mamaia (South) Resort is being systematically eroded by densification, extensions, demolitions, and meaningless renovations.

 Romanian and foreign researchers have already highlighted the remarkable value of the initial modernist ensemble in Mamaia, a heritage that honors us and represents a national resource. For the international recognition of modernist architecture in Romania, Mamaia represents a landmark of similar scale and quality to the urban ensemble of New Belgrade, for which a serious form of legal protection has recently been established.

We should be mindful of the fact that the reputation of the Mamaia Resort — still used in current promotional brochures — was based precisely on the modernist urbanistic, architectural, and landscape qualities, on the open arrangement of urban spaces connecting the lake with the sea, on the breadth of the horizon, on the artistic quality, and on the bright simplicity of the hotel architecture. If these qualities are completely lost (and much has already been destroyed) through uncontrolled densification, intensive occupation of free space, destruction of vegetation, demolitions, inappropriate re-functionalizations, and random renovations, soon the resort will have nothing left to boast about besides a large number of accommodation units and overcrowding. And in the long term, once the resort completely loses its architectural-urbanistic coherence, these units will probably remain unoccupied, a possibility which should give the authorities pause for thought.

We need to learn from the experience of other countries. The phenomenon of intensive seaside development has occurred in other countries as well, but for some time now this type of planning has demonstrated both its destructive character for the local environment and the marine landscape, as well as its long-term economic inefficiency. We don't need to repeat the same mistake!

We need the modernist heritage of the 1960s and 1970s to be protected: firm construction/intervention regulations should be introduced on the coast, and the architectural and urban heritage should be valued through careful restoration and rehabilitation operations, as has been done for a long time in other former communist countries, which already understood that modernist heritage is a lasting resource.

Knowing that the new Mamaia Zonal Urban Plan (PUZ) is currently being drafted, the DOCOMOMO ROMANIA association urgently requests the public administration, the approval bodies, and fellow architects and urban planners to consider very seriously the value of modernist heritage and to save what can still be saved, based on careful and well-documented historical studies regarding the modernist architectural-urbanistic and artistic value.

In the attached table (Annex 1), we indicate only a few of the buildings/ensembles whose architectural/historical value has been underestimated or ignored in the plans published with the official announcement of intent to elaborate the PUZ (update of the Mamaia PUZ, initially approved by HCL no. 121/2013).

On behalf of DOCOMOMO ROMANIA,

Radu Alexandru Răuță, President

Selection of recent works concerning Mamaia and seaside socialist built heritage:

•  docomomoromania.ro

• Șerban, Alina, Kalliopi Dimou și Sorin Istudor (eds.), 2025 (second edition). Vederi Încântătoare: Urbanism și Arhitectură în Turismul Românesc de la Marea Neagră în anii ’60–’70/Enchanting Views: Romanian Black Sea Tourism Planning and Architecture of the 1960s and 70s. Bucharest: Asociația Pepluspatru.

• Pavel, Carrie, Tulbure Irina and Ana Maria Zahariade, “MAMAIA SEASIDE RESORT, ROMANIA Constanţa 1958–61”, in Haenraets, Jan, Andrew Saniga and Gulnur Cengiz (eds.), 2024. Landscape Architecture and Infrastructure of the Twentieth Century, Docomomo International: https://docomomo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Landscapes_20240917_digital-2.pdf

•  Alexe, Ioana (ed.), 2024. ”Betoane de nisip” (”Sand concrete”, thematic issue dedicate to Romanian seaside), Arhitectura, iss.1-2, Bucharest: U.A.R..

• Fulga, Radu, 2024. Semne pe țărm. Arta litoralului modern privită azi, Techirghiol, Bucharest: U.A.R.

• Oprică Alice Maria, 2023. Marea Neagră. Un narativ arhitectural din antichitate până la începutul Războiului Rece. Cluj-Napoca: Editura UT Press

• Zahariade, Ana Maria, 2011. Arhitectura în Proiectul Comunist: România 1944–1989 /Architecture in the Communist Project: Romania 1944–1989. Bucharest: Simetria.

• Băncescu, Irina, 2012. ‘Problematica frontului la apă. specte ale evoluției litoralului românesc în perioada comunistă /The Problematic of Waterfront: Aspects of the Evolution of the Romanian Seashore during Communism’. Doctoral thesis, Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism, București.