M9 - Military Authorities and the Urban Landscape

Author(s)

Anda-Lucia Spânu (The Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities from Sibiu)

Keywords

Military Architecture,  Urban Views, Historical Images

Abstract

Among the many monuments of Sibiu, the fortifications, due to their size, required a great volume of work, being erected in successive stages, imposed by the demographic, economic and political situation of Sibiu at different moments of history. For this reason, the remaining elements are the result of transformations that occurred over time. At the present stage of the state of the research, any study regarding the evolution of the fortifications has as a starting point older representations of the town, in particular the ones of the amateur painter Johann Böbel (1824–1887), who rendered Sibiu monuments in numerous views and a plan.

The 19th century represents the moment when the last fortifications demonstrated their inefficiency in the face of the modernized armament, a fact confirmed by the events of 1849. For this reason was the last period of existence for many of the town’s fortifications. The towers and the bastions are gradually demolished for reasons of circulation or urban development, and the walls are decommissioned. From 1836 to 1898, many elements were removed from the enclosures. The economic development of the town, the need for better circulation, especially in the last third of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, will impose
interventions with direct implications in the urban picture. A significant part of the lost appearance of towns can be recovered and demolished monuments can be reconstructed using general or partial urban views. This paper is a plea for the use of historical images of towns in historical research and aims to recover part of the military architecture of Sibiu through drawn, painted or engraved representations, so that art becomes historical document.

Author(s)

Catarina Almeida Marado (University of Coimbra)

Keywords

Military Buildings, Adaptative Reuse, Urban Transformation

Abstract

In Portugal, the decree that determines the dissolution of the religious orders in 1834 and the secularization of their buildings and lands stated that the monastic buildings should be used for different public functions, namely for the installation of military forces. This was coincident with the implementation of public services and buildings by the New Liberal State and it also happened in many other European countries. As a consequence, in many Portuguese cities, several former monasteries and convents were transformed into barracks and other military installations causing a major impact on the cities.

This paper will analyze the installation process of the militaries in the major cities of the Algarve region and the transformation of old monastic buildings to this propose. It will focus on the role played by the militaries in the adaptive reuse of existent buildings, namely the former monasteries and convents, and in the consequence for both for the buildings and surrounding urban areas through a comparative analysis of the cities of Faro, Tavira and Lagos, in which the military forces installed themselves in six ancient monasteries.

Why were these buildings chosen? What were the military strategies for the reuse and the transformation of these architectonic structures? And how did the military presence influence the cities development? These are some of the questions that will be addressed to demonstrate the importance of the military authorities in the preservation of the monastic buildings and in the transformation of the cities in the first half of the 19th century.

Author(s)

Athina Vitopoulou (School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)

Keywords

Military Camp Reuse, Urban Transformations and Major Urban Landowners, Urban Planning and Land Policy

Abstract

The Army constitutes one of the major land owners in many Greek cities and the valorisation of its property for planning purposes is under discussion for many decades, however with rather fragmentary and limited results. In Thessaloniki, the troubled historical conditions from the end of the 19th till the 1920s led to to the formation of many military sites in and around the city. After World War II, the need for social services buildings and infrastructure, coupled with the lack of available land, brought to the fore the mainly unbuilt military camps and primarily those located closer to the city centre. Within the post-war public works policy for the modernisation of the city, a strong political pressure gradually emerged for the reuse of military sites, which coincided with the willingness of the Army to valorise some of them henceforth useless for military reasons. This resulted to fragmentary urban transformations, mainly the construction of public buildings and facilities. Since the mid-1980s, the reuse of military camps has been highlighted of strategic importance for the urban
restructuring in metropolitan level, as they constitute important land reserves in an extremely dense urban fabric with great deficiency in open and green public spaces.

Based on a multitude of primary and secondary sources (military archives, legislation, cartographic documents, photos, newspapers, published material), the paper will discuss the following issues: their formation process and diachronic importance within the urban tissue, as well as the emerging spatial, socio-economic and environmental issues of their reuse; the evolution of ideas and planning approaches on their reconversion developed by the various public services and local authorities and the management strategy adopted by the Army; the institutional and political issues that determine the action and behaviour of the involved actors, as well as the transformation mechanism developed.

Author(s)

Aleksander Łupienko (Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences)

Keywords

Military Infrastructure, Warsaw, Russian Rule

Abstract

The authors of the paper bring the case study of Warsaw, the capital of the Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, a quickly growing city (200 thousand inhabitants in 1860s and nearly 900 thousand in 1914), which has been subject to militarization after the second anti-Russian uprising. Although the uprising did not threaten Warsaw as the bastion of the Russian rule in the capital of the defunct Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian military authority, which exerted enormous power within the Empire, decided to strengthen the presence of the soldiers in the city. A new wave of barracks-building began, adding many new ones to the already existing military infrastructure in Warsaw (some barracks dating back to the end of the eighteenth century and the last decades of the independent existence of the Commonwealth). The enlargement of the garrisons meant also notable changes in the social and confessional character of the city. The erection of new orthodox churches soon followed as there had been hitherto only a minor Orthodox community in Warsaw. The barracks, churches, along with military exercise fields, formed new spaces in the city, which could be also seen as semi-autonomous districts. The presence of the military was clearly felt in Warsaw, as memoirs often testify. The role of the military grew further after the process of constructing a ring of bastions around the city began in the 1880s. And whereas in smaller towns the military factor was vital for urban economy and has been subject of scholarly scrutiny, the precise role of the military in Warsaw has not been examined. In our paper we want to analyse where this new military infrastructure was located, and how it looked like and functioned, in order to try to assess the role of the military within the urban space.

Author(s)

Tuomas Teuho (University of Tampere)

Keywords

Russian Military, Finland, Hämeenlinna

Abstract

In my presentation I aim to demonstrate how Russian military authorities influenced the urban planning of the Finnish town of Hämeenlinna from the year 1900 to 1917. The Grand Duchy of Finland was part of the Russian Empire during this period and there was a large number of Russian troops stationed there. Hämeenlinna itself was a strategically important provincial center which therefore had a very large Russian garrison in comparison with the size of the local civilian population, making it an interesting case study. There were three distinct garrison areas in Hämeenlinna, all of which housed Russian troops in this period. The barracks areas had an effect on the local population and infrastructure, for the Russian troops in them would require different kinds of supplies, foodstuffs, transportation, maintenance and cleaning services from the local civilian community. Also civilian urban planners would have to take into account the militarys need for training grounds near the town. In addition to barracks buildings housing soldiers, the garrison areas also included guardhouses, bakeries, different kinds of workshops, military hospitals and infirmaries, warehouses and stables for the many horses required by military activity. The functioning of these garrison complexes also had to be taken into account by the civilian urban planners of Hämeenlinna.

Russian military presence in Hämeenlinna also had an effect on the cultural politics of the town. This manifested itself strongly in the Russian Orthodox garrison church built for the troops in 1900. Finland was a target of Russification measures in the areas of cultural and political life at this time and garrison churches were understood by many as a continuation of these measures. Therefore the Hämeenlinna garrison church attracted significant criticism from the representatives of the local populace. After Finnish independence the church tower of the garrison church was felled and the building was transformed into a library.
My intention is to contribute to the session by presenting my case as interesting,example of the interplay between military authorities and civilian urban planners in the context of an imperial centre-subject relationship.

Author(s)

Frank Rochow (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology/ Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)

Keywords

Urban Space, Militarization, Neo-absolutism

Abstract

The first half of the 19th Century witnessed the disappearance of the hitherto existing military character of the Galician capital Lemberg. Fostered by therevolutionary events of 1848 and the installation of a neo-absolutist regime, a new direction was taken to build up a spatial and visual dominance of the state. Consequently, the erection of new military structures - symbolizing the Habsburg supremacy over Polish national ambitions - was enhanced, while their mere dimensions reified the new approaches of centralization and visualization of state power in general, and military organization in particular. Viewed together, the newly created ensembles of military buildings formed an architecturally distinct circle around Lemberg, which pre-conditioned the further disappearance of the military and the subsequent rise of the civic element within the city center. A brief comparison with the simultaneously ongoing activities in Vienna illustrates that this strategy was a widely implemented way of changing the urban fabric of the neo-absolutist state.The further concentration on Lemberg shows how deeply the implementation of the centrally planned projects depended on local circumstances. Above all, the question of ground acquisition posed a serious threat to the foreseen schedule of the military authorities, since ownership questions and conflicts over compensations needed to be solved first. Once set in motion, however, the construction sites offered various opportunities to foster the development of the local economy and was even used as a political instrument at times of need. The impulses for growth and development were further strengthened by the exploitation of hitherto ruralsurroundings for the creation of larger building complexes. These areas would later serve as nuclei for the development of new suburbs and larger city planning schemes. A final look at the actors reveals how deeply the officers of the military building units were rooted in the imperial ideology. Being trained throughout the monarchy and grounded solely in the service of the state, the question is raised, to what extent these men were able to leave their imprint on the projects they were planning and conducting, and how their allegiance influenced their interaction with local stakeholders.

Author(s)

Maximilian Hartmuth (University of Vienna)

Keywords

Orientalizing Architecture, Neoabsolutism, Museums

Abstract

The Arsenal Complex in Vienna (1849-56), with the Armory Museum (today’s Museum of Military History) as its centerpiece, represents the most ambitious architectural project in the imperial capital in the immediate aftermath of the revolutionary uprisings of 1848/49. Despite its remarkable design, the complex – and especially the museum, also being the first purpose-built museum in Vienna – has been met with modest interest by art historians. Most commentators have settled for typifying its style as an amalgam of ‘Moorish’, ‘Oriental’ or ‘Byzantine’, usually noting occasional ‘Gothic’ throw-ins. The central question of why such an – essentially alien – style should have been found suitable for a building of this type and function has neither been posed nor answered. My paper aims to revisit the project with a view to its immediate temporal and spatial contexts and reexamine its architecture from a dramaturgical angle.

Author(s)

Dragan Damjanović (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb)

Keywords

Military Architecture,  Austro-Hungarian Navy, Pula

Abstract

The uprisings against the Habsburg Monarchy in northern Italy in 1848-1849 showed the authorities in Vienna that it was necessary to move their main naval base from Venice to areas that were safer. The city of Pula, located in the extreme south of the Istrian peninsula in the province of the Austrian Littoral, was considered the most appropriate location. After Pula was declared a war port of the Habsburg Empire in 1853, its intensive development began. Thanks to its new statues the small town turned until the beginning of the First World War into one of the largest settlements on the Habsburg east coast of the Adriatic. The construction of the Arsenal in Pula began in 1856. In the decades that followed near the existing Roman and medieval buildings numerous fortifications and monumental public and residential buildings were erected for the needs of the Austro-Hungarian navy and local population. First, the Naval Barracks were built (1851-1856), then the central headquarters building, ie the Admiralty (1861). This was followed by the construction of the Military Hospital (1861). A kind of centre of the social life of high-ranking officers of the Austro-Hungarian Navy was the Marine-Kasino, erected in 1870-1872 by architect Friedrich Adam from Munich, which was replaced in 1910-1913. with a new, much more lavish building built according to the designs of the Viennese architect Ludwig Baumann. Among the most luxurious buildings erected by the Navy is also the naval church of Madonna del Mare, built in 1890-1898 according to the designs of architects Friedrich von Schmidt, Victor Luntz and Natale Tommasi. The aim of this presentation is to show the complete urban transformation of Pula in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century through the buildings of the Austro-Hungarian Navy and to point out its value and the problems related to their preservation.