The Historical Evolution of Craiova Municipality (Romania) Results from the Analysis of Cartographic Documents

Abstract

Craiova, one of the largest cities in Romania, is located in the south of the country, within the Romanian Plain, at 44º 3′ North and 21º 2′ East. The altitude of the area varies between 75 and 116 m. The city developed along the Jiu Valley, at the junction between the Oltenia Plain and the Getic Piedmont. Resembling an amphitheatre, the settlement is bordered by hilly areas in the North, West and East, while in the South, the altitude decreases towards the Danube Valley. This is the main factor that imposed the southward development of the city, as in the West, where it was a favourable flat area, namely the Jiu floodplain, until 1970 there used to be a marsh, due to spring high waters. This paper aims at reconstructing the position of the settlement in cartographic documents starting with the Tabula Peutingeriana (dating from the Roman period), Constantin Cantacuzino’s map (1700), Fr. Schwantz (1722), and the map of the Romanian Principalities (1790), ending with the contemporary period and the era of digital maps. We also use historical–geographical documents from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the present times which mention the settlement or the area in which the city is located. We also aim to emphasize the growth of the city by illustrating the spatial–temporal stages using large scale cartographic documents and correlating this growth with the events that imposed certain distortions from archetypical urban structures.