Heritage policies and Rural community: the case of Transylvania, Romania

The selected region of Southern Transylvania is one of the richest culturally and naturally in Romania. In particular, the area has seen its value recognized through the demarcation of seven villages with fortified churches in the UNESCO World Heritage list. Moreover, the specific land-use system, with the settlement pattern, is recognised as a protected area within the European Union’s network of Natura 2000. The current thesis work is going to dwell on the analysis of the heritage preservation policies that were resulting from the social-economic changes happened in the rural communities of Transylvanian villages, especially after the end of the communist regime in the 1990s and the following entrance in the European Union in 2007. It is going to be revealed the effects resulted from the preservation strategies at a multilayered level by different stakeholders. In particular, foreign investments for rural development programmes and new economics processes had led to the selection of a portion of local traditions and past (namely, the Saxon villages), recognised as more potentially valuable and exploitable. In this sense, this work will analyse the cultural practice of heritage (as highlighted by Smith, 2006) in the process of community changes and identity formation within the development of the rural area. Overall, the work is going to present the results connected to the new representation of heritage in rural Transylvania.