Arheologia unui spațiu pentru „Ajutorarea și îndreptarea celor răi” Penitenciarul Râmnicul Sărat
The archeology of a space for ”Helping and correcting the wicked ” the Râmnicul Sărat” Penitentiary

Summary/Abstract: The Râmnicu Sărat penitentiary, now abandoned, is a space with a long biography, starting at the end of the 19th century, linked since its beginnings to the repressive political actions of the Romanian state; a space whose dark reputation it is nowadays associated especially with the repression of the communist period, as one of the main detention centres that formed the Romanian gulag. After the fall of the communist regime in Romania in 1989, the former penitentiary was the subject of numerous memoirs written by former political prisoners incarcerated at Râmnicu Sărat, as well as subject of interest for historians, becoming one of the most important “places of memory” of communist political repression, hence the intention to be transformed in the near future into a memorial museum. Despite this interest, the knowledge about the former political prison in Râmnicu Sărat (but not only) has remained an abstract one, informed by the descriptions of former political prisoners and, eventually, the archival documents. The former political prison was reduced to a simple stage for the events that took place within its walls, the only ones considered to be relevant, its materiality being completely ignored. In order to contribute to the improvement of this situation, between May 11-19, 2021, we carried out archaeological research in the former penitentiary in Râmnicu Sărat. In the present text, a narrative composed of fragments and not a linear one, we present a series of preliminary archaeological reflections generated by this first encounter with the former prison – reflections on the bodily perception of the various prison spaces; materiality and time; the role of materiality in the construction of specific prison experiences; the layers of memory contained in the buildings; the relationship between written memory (e.g. memoirs, documents) and material memory; ruination and vegetation; as well as the relationship between the materiality of the prison and the wider urban landscape. Thus, we hope to go beyond the historical discourses about the Râmnicu Sărat penitenciary and begin to understand what the former prison means.

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