The special tangible and intangible heritage of the town of Jimbolia, specific for the inter-ethnic area of the western region of Banat, which due to its peculiarities is a valuable piece in the context of national culture, will become more visible after the implementation of a pilot project designed to protect preserve and showcase identity elements of the town.

Coordinator of the Sever Bocu Press Museum of Jimbolia Cristina Dema told AGERPRES on Tuesday that there will be a public consultation on the action plan for the built heritage of the town, which thus enters the participatory, involvement stage of the local community in the decision-making process. The action is designed to create an example of good practices that could later be adopted elsewhere in the region or around Romania.

"The town of Jimbolia is the keeper of a tangible and intangible heritage specific to the interethnic area of Banat, which due to its peculiarities is a valuable piece in the context of the national culture. The popularity of this space representatives for several nationalities, such as Germans, Hungarians, Romanians, Serbs, Roma, Jews, French, Dutch, Italians, Slovaks, led to the emergence of a material heritage reinforced by important anthropic actions. Agriculture, craftsmanship and industry have contributed not only to the development of defining architectural elements, but also to the formation of inter-human mechanisms embodied in societies or other organisations preserving the intangible heritage. The connection of the town to the Bazias-Timisoara-Budapest-Vienna railway route allowed an enriching openness towards Western Europe, and at the same time it was, on numerous occasions, a venue for events of national importance: the flight of King Carol II, Queen Elena's return from the exile, the deportation of thousands of people to the USSR and Baragan, the attempt to flee from communist Romania and the first place in Romania the Orient Express train, the Simplon variant, would cross when entering the country. All this has irreversibly marked the local consciousness," said Cristina Dema.

Jimbolia has six museums as main tourist attractions - of the railways, of fire brigades, the Stefan Jager Museum, the Sever Bocu Press Museum, the Petre Stoica Memorial House, and the Dr. Karl Diel Memorial House - while being also a realm of legends, which Cristina Dema, coordinator of the Sever Bocu Press Museum, and Sergiu Dema, director of the Jimbolia Centre of Culture, revealed to AGERPRES.

Jimbolia was for a day a town without a public administration when the people belonged nowhere, without a country and institutions. In 1919-1924, Jimbolia belonged to the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian Kingdom. In April 1924, following an exchange of territories, Jimbolia returned to Romania.

"Jimbolia was for a few hours a town without a country. The protocol said that the Romanian administration would enter Jimbolia a few hours after the Serbian administration left the city. The people of Jimbolia noted that there was huge panic during that period, because they knew that being without a country, they belonged nowhere, they had no police, hospitals, or laws and any action by robbers during these hours could not be punished by anyone," said Cristina and Sergiu Dema.

Made with support from the Vest region regional development agency and drawn up by the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of Timisoara against a methodology patented by the Heritage Institute of Bavaria, the action plan for the built heritage takes inventory of the heritage assets of the town of Jimbolia and proposes a strategy for their protection, conservation and capitalisation. AGERPRES (RO - author: Otilia Halunga, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)

Photos: (c) CONSTANTIN DUMA / AGERPRES FOTO