Piaţa Regală şi corso-ul gălăţean
Royal Square and Corso of Galaţi

Summary/Abstract: Galați, Romania’s largest harbor up to the interwar period, also known as “Antwerp of the East” or “Marseilles of Balkans”, has not maintained or preserved in its development an urban center holder of historical, cultural, social, administrative, or economic importance. In 1880–1944, a period of relative economic development and social stability, the center of Galați included the Royal Square, reminiscent of the Place d’Étoile, on a smaller scale, and a portion of the Royal Street, a shopping and leisure area, known at the time as “corso”. On the night of 24 to 25 August 1944, the retreating German army destroyed buildings, built in the urban eclectic style with neoclassical elements, in the Royal Square and the Corso. The new political regime established after 1947 did not allow the restoration of the buildings. The systematization and the architecture imposed by the East changed this area profoundly. Thus, the urban center was represented by a simple intersection, the name of the former historical center remaining only in the collective memory.

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