Suchergebnisse

Monuments in the public forum dedicated to political leaders are an important tool in promoting national identity. Frequently, the political message embedded in public monuments is intended to contribute to propagating and strengthening a sense of national identity by shaping the community's commemorative experience. In addition to the commemorative function related to social memory, public monuments also have an associated ideological function, as the monuments become essential in visually representing the national politics of memory and identity. The ideological function also represents an expression of power by emphasising a series of prominent political leaders. This article analyses the imagology and symbolism of public monuments in the central area of Bucharest as elements that support the construction of national identity. Commemorative monuments dedicated to symbolic national political personalities from the period of the United Principalities and Royalty were analysed in terms of their role in remembering and forming the national identity. The evolution of these monuments and their significance were also analysed based on postcards, which were marked by a series of changes in how power was expressed and the formation of national identity in the communist and contemporary periods.

Visual representations are a key tool for tourism marketing, incorporating the possibility of transmitting the associated historical and cultural symbols, as well as the messages associated with the official discourse at the same time. This article aims to analyse the evolution of urban and tourist planning since 1900 until now, in the area of Cetăţuia urban ensemble in Cluj-Napoca, by using postcards. The methodology consisted of interpreting the visual representations of the studied area from a critical perspective of the official discourse based on the selection of postcards published in different historical periods. The results of the study highlight the changes registered by Cetăţuia urban ensemble based on the evolution of the tourist planning, on the one hand, as well as on the narrative associated with the visual representations strongly influenced by the political ideology, on the other hand. This study reflects the role of postcards as a research tool in studies focused on analysing the visual representations of cultural heritage elements as promotion tools, but also a means of understanding cultural buildings and sites. At the same time, the visual representations of Cetăţuia and its location encompass coded messages of the official discourse meant to promote their image as a recreational space as part of the modernisation process of Cluj-Napoca during Socialism.

The built heritage, through the multiple meanings it associates (oldness, architectural, aesthetic, symbolic, authenticity), is characterized by uniqueness and irreversibility, being frequently related to the cultural and implicitly tourist image of cities. Due to the seniority of architectural heritage and the special relations established with the place and people, under the direct influence of the socio-cultural and political factors, it ensures the accumulation of symbols that codify the urban space. As a result, heritage buildings are associated with elements of territorial identity. Visual imagery is used as an argument to support the process of selecting significant buildings for local / national culture. These are promoted among the general public. Most of the time, the selection process aims at identifying representative buildings, a process that registers the influence of socio-cultural and politic factors. This article focuses on the socio-cultural evolution of the Romanian Athenaeum, a symbolic building of the Romanian culture. Based on a rich background of historical illustrations and recent observations, the authors analysed the symbols associated with the Romanian Athenaeum, in various historical periods. The authors used a sample of picture postcards with representations of the Athenaeum and interpreted the information they provided. The key results show the cultural role of the Athenaeum for the capital city, Bucharest, and its relation with the political factor, as this building was selected as the host for important political events with a deep historical charge, most often having the support of national authorities. In the course of time, the Athenaeum was represented constantly in picture postcards, as cultural building symbol and tourist attraction, due to its unique characteristics which emphasize its role as element of urban identity for Bucharest. At the same time, the interpretation of visual imagery allowed the decoding of the symbols and identification of the identity narrative and politics built around the Athenaeum, which, through the interactions generated by the socio-cultural and political plans, confer it the quality of symbolic building for the national and European culture.