Since the twentieth century, the interdisciplinary field of ‘memory studies’ has become especially topical and drawn upon a variety of theoretical perspectives, while offering a plethora of empirical case studies exploring the politics of memory and urban space, cultural heritage and cultural identity that mould a space’s distinctiveness. This study draws on a comparative analysis to theoretically prove and develop a multifaceted memory of Chernivtsi’s significantly transformed and enriched urban landscape through an interdisciplinary approach involving various methods and instruments for handling the essential societal resources of history, memory and identity.

The city of Chernivtsi and the region of Bukovina, historically part of Central Eastern Europe and geo-strategically the heart of Europe, has recently strengthened its voice in becoming culturally and economically bound to the European Union. As a well-preserved city ruled, at different times, by the Habsburg Empire (1900-1918), Romania (1918-1939) and the USSR (1940/41-1991), Chernivtsi (Czernowitz, Cernăuţi, Chernovtsy) serves as a case study for exploring the human fingerprints of every epoch. The city’s architectural diversity offers testimony as to how Chernivtsi’s urban society preserved its unique landscape of identity, embodied in a patchwork of ethnic, linguistic and confessional affiliations, while integrating representational claims and moderating its space.

This study analyses the policies and practices of these three epochs in Chernivtsi’s history, in terms of how the city attempted to promote, develop and preserve its cultural heritage, while preserving the collective memory and shaping supranational identity.

[1] Friedrich Nietzsche, “Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben.” On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life, trans. Peter Preuss (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1980), 61.

[2] Dave Armstrong, The Wisdom of Mr Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton (TAN Books, 2009).

[3] ICOMOS, “18 April. Shared Cultures, Shared Heritage, Shared Responsibility,” accessed on March 12, 2019, https://www.icomos.org/en/focus/18-april-international-day-for-monuments-and-sites.

[4] Julieta M. Vasconcelos Leite, “Cultural Heritage and Monument, a Place in Memory,” City & Time IV, 2 (2009): 26, accessed on May 20, 2020, http://www.ct.ceci-br.org.

[5] Eugenia P. Bitsani, “Cultural Heritage and Historical Memory as a Factor for the Sustainable Development of the Modern City: A Case Study of the Museum Cluster ‘Museumsinsel’ in Berlin,” in G. Mergos and N. Patsavos, eds., Cultural heritage and sustainable development: Economic benefits, social opportunities and policy challenges (Technical University of Crete, 2017), 163-176.

[6] Salvador Muñoz Viñas, Contemporary Theory of Conservation (Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005).

[7] Salvador Muñoz Viñas, The Transactional Nature of Heritage Conservation (Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam University of the Arts, 2017), 63.

[8] Emily Keightley, Research Methods for Memory Studies (Edinburgh University Press, 2013), 2.

[9] Christopher Whitehead and Gönül Bozoğlu, “Heritage and Memory in Europe: A Review of Key Concepts and Frameworks,” in “Critical Heritages (CoHERE): Performing and Representing Identities in Europe” (2017): 2, accessed on May 20, 2020, https://eprints.ncl.ac.uk /file_store/production/239678/CD7C34A7-DEDC-4BAA-9168-3FC71006C70A.pdf.

[10] Michael Rothberg, Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization (Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009), 7.

[11] Jarosław Klaś, “Historical Museums: Between Collective Memory and Politics of Historical Memory,” in Ł. Gaweł & E. Kocój, eds., Cultural Heritage - Management, Identity and Potential (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2015), 107-130.

[12] Emile Durkheim. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, trans. Karen E. Fields (New York: The Free Press, 1995), 213.

[13] Ibid., 214.

[14] Dumitran Daniel and Ileana Burnichioiu, “Why Sacred Space in Central and Eastern Europe?”, in Daniel Dumitran, Ileana Burnichioiu, eds., Sacred Space in Central and Eastern Europe from Middle Ages to the Late Modernity: Birth, Function, and Changes (Cluj-Napoca: Mega, 2014) (AUA hist. 18, I, 2014): 12.

[15] Rose-Redwood, et al., “Collective Memory and the Politics of Urban Space: An Introduction,” GeoJournal 73 (2008): 161-164. DOI: 10.1007/s10708-008-9200-6.

[16] Andreas Huyssen, Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia (New York: Routledge, 1995), 7.

[17] Harry C. Triandis, Culture and Social Behavior (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994).

[18] Edward S. Casey, Getting Back Into Place: Toward a Renewed Understanding of the Place world (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993).

[19] Stephanie Taylor, Narratives of Identity and Place (London: Routledge, 2010).

[20] Maria Lewicka, “Place Attachment, Place Identity, and Place Memory: Restoring the Forgotten City Past,” Journal of Environmental Psychology 28 (2008): 209-231.

[21] Geoffrey Cubitt, History and Memory (Manchester University Press, 2007), 11.

[22] Eleonora Narvselius and Niklas Bernsand, “Lviv and Chernivtsi – Two Memory Cultures at the Western Ukrainian Borderland,” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies 1 (2014): 61-63.

[23] Valentyna Bohatyrets and Liubov Melnychuk, “Chernivtsi Architecture, Urban Landscape and Heritage Conservation: Shared Historical Past of the Romanian Period (1919-1940’s),” in Daniel Dumitran, Valeriu-Eugen Drăgan, eds., The City and the Great War: Architecture, Urbanism and Society after 1918 (Cluj-Napoca: Mega, 2018) (AUA hist. 22, II, 2018): 139-140.

[24] Jon Lang and Nancy Marshall, Urban Squares as Places, Links and Displays: Successes and Failures (New York: Routledge, 2016), 153.

[25] Karl Emil Franzos, Halb-Asien. Land und Leute des Östlichen Europa (Stuttgart: J. G. Cott’sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, 1914); Erich Beck, Bukowina. Land Zwischen Orient und Okzident (Freilassing: Pannonia Verlag, 1963); John Paul Himka, Galicia and Bukovina: A Research Handbook about Western Ukraine, late 19^th-20^th Centuries (Edmonton: Alberta Culture & Multiculturalism Historical Resources Division, 1990); Andrei Corbea-Hoisie, Czernowitzer Geschichten. Über eine städtische Kultur in Mittel (Ost)-Europa (Wien: Böhlau, 2003); Leslie Morris, “Translating Czernowitz: The ‘Non-Place’ of East Central Europe,” Studies in Twentieth and Twenty First Century Literature 31, 1 (2007); Martin Pollack, “Nach Czernowitz,” in Klaus Harer, ed., Mythos Czernowitz. Eine Stadt im Spiegel ihrer Nationalitäten (Potsdam: P/B, 2008); Karolina Koziura, “Everyday Ethnicity in Chernivtsi, Western Ukraine,” Anthropology of East Europe Review 32, 1 (2014): 1-21; Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire,” Representations 26, 1989, 7-24.

[26] Krzysztof Czyżewski, Linia powrotu: Zapiski z pogranicza [Line of Return: Practicing the Borderland] (Sejny: Fundacja Pogranicze, Seria Meridian, 2008), 60.

[27] Cezar Ciorteanu, “Politic-Territorial Projects Concerning Bukovina and the Romanian-Polish Border in the Context of Diplomatic Negotiations During and After World War I (1914-1920),” CC XX (2014): 147.

[28] Кароліна Козюра, Малий Відень на Сході. Вплив пам’яті й національної мітології на творення локальности в сучасних Чернівцях [Little Vienna of the East. The Impact of Memory and National Mythology on the Production of Locality in Contemporary Chernivtsi], Украина модерна 23 (2016): 171-196.

[29] Gaëlle Fisher, “Looking Forwards through the Past: Bukovina’s “Return to Europe” after 1989-1991,” East European Politics and Societies and Cultures 33, 1 (2018): 196-217, https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0888325418780479.

[30] Gaëlle Fisher and Maren Röger, “Bukovina: A Borderland Region in (Trans-)national Historiographies after 1945 and 1989-1991,” East European Politics and Societies and Cultures 33, 1 (2018): 176-195, https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325418791019.

[31] Jon Lang and Nancy Marshall, Urban Squares as Places, Links and Displays: Successes and Failures (New York: Routledge, 2016).

[32] Ibid.

[33] Jérôme Monnet, “The Symbolism of Place: A Geography of Relationships Between Space, Power and Identity,” Cybergeo. European Journal of Geography (2011), https://doi.org/10.4000/ cybergeo.24747.

[34] Süheyla Büyükşahin Sıramkaya. “The Effect of Change in Urban Squares on Urban Identity: The Case of Konya”, Scientific & Academic Publishing 9(1) (2019): 7-15, https://doi.org/10.5923/j.arch. 20190901.02.

[35] Gürhan Tümer, “Kentler, binalar, insanlar, olaylar, meydanlar” [Cities, Buildings, People, Events, and Squares], Ege Mimarlık Dergisi 2 (34) (2000): 12-17.

[36] Марія Никирса, Чернівці. Документальні нариси з історії вулиць і площ [Chernivtsi. Documentary Sketches from the History of Streets and Squares] (Чернівці: Золоті литаври, 2008), 45.

[37] “Monument,” https://www.etymonline.com/word/monument.

[38] Igor Knez, “Autobiographical Memories for Places,” Memory 14 (3) (2006): 359-377.

[39] Kelebogile T. Resane, “Statues, Symbols and Signages: Monuments Towards Socio-Political Divisions, Dominance and Patriotism?,” Herv. Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 74, 4 (2018): 1-8, http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v74i4.4895.

[40] Anna Tengberg et al., “Cultural Ecosystem Services Provided by Landscapes: Assessment of Heritage Values and Identity,” Ecosystem Services 2 (2012): 17.

[41] Patty Gerstenblith, “Identity and Cultural Property: The Protection of Cultural Property in the United States,” Boston University Law Review 75 (1995): 562.

[42] Edgar Morin, La méthode. Les idées. Leur habitat, leur vie, leurs mœurs, leur organisation (Paris: Seuil, 1991).

[43] Leite, “Cultural Heritage and Monument, a Place in Memory,” 26.

[44] Günter Zamp Kelp, “Czernowitz Tomorrow: Architecture and Identity in the Surge of Central Eastern Europe” [Anlässlich der International Summer Academy of Architecture and Urban Regeneration in Chernivtsi 2006 und der Ausstellung “Czernowitz Tomorrow - Ideas for the City of Chernivtsi,” Kunstmuseum, Chernivtsi vom 14. bis 23 August 2006] (Düsseldorf: Institut für Außenwirtschaft GmbH: 2007), 13.

[45] Ibid., 15.

[46] Patty Gerstenblith, “Identity and Cultural Property: The Protection of Cultural Property in the United States,” Boston University Law Review 75 (1995): 562.

[47] Volodymyr Staryk, “Austrian/German Chernivtsi,” accessed on 15 June 2019, http:// buktolerance.com.ua/ ?p=5833&lang=en.

[48] In the Soviet period, this church served as an archive.

Fig. 1. Central Square (1911). Source: http://www.lvivcenter.org.

Fig. 2. Museum of Fine Arts, mosaic on façade, realised in Zsolnay majolica tiles. Source: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/ukraine-mosaic.html.

Fig. 3. Town Hall; View of the Square (Ringplatz) (photograph from 1898). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 4. The Pietà monument (photograph from c. 1900). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 5. Monument to the Virgin Mary (photograph from August 6, 1917). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 6. The Pietà at Sedgura Cemetery (photograph from 2008). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 7. Heiliger Kreuz-Platz (photograph from 1898). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 8. The Unirii (Unification) Monument. Source: https://romaniaimaginideierisiazi. wordpress.com/2013/05/03/monumentul-unirii-din-cernauti/.

Fig. 9. The back of the Unification monument.

Fig. 10. Star flowerbed at the foot of the Unification monument (photograph from 1944–1946). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 11. Obelisk bearing the arms of the Soviet Republics, erected on the base of the Unification monument (photograph from 1950). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 12. Monument to Vladimir Lenin, Leader of the Soviet Bolsheviks; inaugurated in 1951 and demolished in 1991 (Central Square). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 13. Elisabethplatz (photograph from between 1907 and 1918). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig.14. Statue of Friedrich Shiller, in front of Chernivtsi Theatre (photograph from 1908). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 15. Beheaded monument to V. Lenin, in front of the Chernivtsi Theatre (photograph by Willy Pragher, 1941). Source: Сергій Воронцов, “Ставити на чорне. Як на Буковині фашизм любили” [Black Hats are Highly Motivated. How Bucovinians Worshiped Fascism],” https://shpalta.media/2019/05/20/staviti-na-chorne-yak-na-bukovini-fashizm-lyubili/].

Fig. 16. Bust of Olha Kobylianska. Source: Сергій Осадчук, Володимир Заполовський, Наталія Шевченко. Пам'ятники Чернівців / Denkmaeler von Czernowitz. Чернівці: Зелена Буковина, 2009.

Fig. 17. Austria Platz and Franz-Josefs Platz on a Map from 1911. Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 18. Monument to Austria (photograph by Anton Kluczenko of circa 1875). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 19. Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, seen from Franz-Josef Platz (photograph from the 1860s). Source: Archival photographic collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 20. Monument to Johann von Nepomuk. Source: Осадчук, Заполовський, Шевченко. Пам'ятники Чернівців / Denkmaeler von Czernowitz..

Fig. 21. Monument to Empress Elizabeth, Franz-Josef Platz (photograph from 1911-1918). Source: Archival photograph collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 22. Bust of Mihai Eminescu in Grădina Arboroasa. Source: Archive photograph collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 23. Bust of Romanian Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu in Grădina Arboroasa. Source: Archive photograph collection of Edward Turkiewicz.

Fig. 24. Obelisk of Victory, erected by the Soviets in 1946 on the site of an unfinished monument to an Unknown Soldier. Source: “Докієн Олександр, 6 фактів про монумент Перемоги у Чернівцях” [6 Facts About the Monument of Victory in Chernivtsi], https://shpalta.media/2019/05/09/6-faktiv-pro-monument-peremogi-u-chernivcyax/.

Fig. 25. Plan of Czernowitz, Ludwig West Map, 1896, dating from the Austrian epoch (1775-1918). Source: City Archival stock document.

Fig. 26. Plan of Cernăuţi, Ion Onciul Map, 1930, from the Romanian epoch (1918-1940). Source: City Archival stock document.

Fig. 27. The current official map of the city of Chernivtsi. Source: Організація Національної спілки архітекторів України в Чернівецькій області [Organization of the National Branch of Architects of Ukraine in the Chernivtsi Region], https://www.facebook.com/archibuk.org/photos/pcb.1560623314202414/1560622934202452/.