Topografia urbană a oraşului Brăila în lumina unor surse cartografice inedite de la sfârşitul secolului al XVIII-lea
Urban Topography of the Brăila Town in the Light of New Cartographic Sources of the End of the 18th Century

Summary/Abstract: The oldest published plans of the Danube city of Brăila are „The plan of the Braila fortress, as it was in 1788–1789 ...,” created by the Austrian officer Johann von Vermatti with the help of scouts, and the fortress plan for 1819, developed by the Ottoman military engineer Seyyid Ömer. Nevertheless in both cases one can notice some geometric distortions between the city and fortifications. Their proportions and dimensions appear to be much more accurate in the other two plans of Brăila, recently found by the author in the Russian State Military Historical Archive of Moscow. The first cartographic document as „The plan of the Brailov fortress ...” was drawn in 1770 by conductor Ivan Sobolev, and the second one as „The plan of the Brailov fortress with indication about the same Vorstadt ...” was taken in 1775 by engineer-captain Mark Severinchik. Both these plans record the topographic situation of the city during the stay of the Russian troops in Brăila for 1770–1774. It can be seen that the city's road network is organic, non-geometric and gradually developed in time. The direction of the streets is determined by the configuration of the Danube riverbank, transit transport arteries, and by an important attraction element which is the main building of worship with small streets leading to it. Thus, this forms a zone with a radial structure in this place. The built-up area, divided into „islands” of various forms, reaches the non aedificandi zone of the fortress.

• Details
• Contents