Urban Geoheritage. The Secular Wells of Craiova, Romania

The term geodiversity has been used by geologists and geomorphologists since the 1990s to describe the variety of abiotic nature (Gray 2004, Zwoliński 2004) and its importance in linking Earth, people and cultures was recognised afterwards (Gordon 2012).

Urban geodiversity includes, besides the variety of the geological and physical elements of nature (Sharples 2002), buildings, monuments and other elements that promote and disseminate information about the Earth’s surface (Palacio 2014, Tičar et al. 2017).

The elements of geodiversity that are judged to be significant and worthy of conservation thanks to their values are considered geoheritage (Gray 2004). Such elements of geodiversity are the ones that have value to humans, that is, they provide the scientific evidence of the evolution of life on Earth, are important for research and education, aesthetic value and touristic potential, and the sites give a sense of place or play a cultural and spiritual role for particular human communities (Sharples 2002). Geoheritage can have intrinsic importance or cultural importance, and the information extracted from it can be used for research, teaching or may have significance for local communities (Brocx, Semeniuk 2017).

Both concepts, geodiversity and geoheritage, constituted reason for debate not only for geoscientists, but also in a variety of other domains such as biology, spatial planning, general tourism, geotourism or cultural heritage (Coratza et al. 2018). According to the goal of the analysis, multiple assessment methods of geoheritage have been proposed (Pralong and Reynard 2005, Fuertes-Gutiérrez and Fernández-Martínez 2010, Jiménez-Sánchez et al. 2011, Kirchner et al. 2017, Pica et al. 2017, Habibi et al. 2018).

At a geoheritage, the natural feature should be the greatest part, but the secondary (man-made) part is important too; in combination, they result in a significant touristic resource (Kubalíková et al. 2016, Kirchner et al. 2017). The anthropogenic part brings us information which would normally remain hidden and so it helps to understand the evolution of landscape and Earth history (Kubalíková et al. 2017).

Kubalíková (2017) considers the following genetic classification with 10 classes to be representative for anthropogenic geoheritage (secondary geodiversity), based on the classification realised by Kirchner, Smolová (2010) and Lóczy et al. (2010): mining landforms, industrial landforms, agricultural landforms, urban landforms, communication landforms, water system landforms with a subset of littoral, military landforms, funeral landforms, celebration landforms and other landforms referring to recreational landforms, archaeological excavations, research landforms and so on.

The settlement named today Craiova is considered to be the inheritor of the old settlement Pelendava, mentioned around 225 AD on the map of the Roman Empire Tabula Peutingeriana (Vulpe 1979). The geomorphic characteristics of Craiova’s territory reside primarily within the localisation of the city at the contact area between two relief steps, the Getic Piedmont and the Oltenia Plain, in the wide valley of Jiu river (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

The urban settlement has extended on the Jiu terraces, which can be described as an amphitheatre, downstream from the confluence with the Amaradia river. Quaternary deposits have shaped the territory on which the city has developed; the exogenous factors have played a major role in quaternary sedimentation and an endogenous factor has had an important role in the convergence area of Craiova. In the Craiova area, the following types of quaternary deposits were identified: a) alluvial deposits made of slightly clayish sands; b) loess-like deposits; c) deposits of wind dunes, not only due to the west winds, but also of the hydrographic network, the wind sands coming mainly from the alluvial sands and d) proluvial and gravitational deposits (Coteț 1957). Neotectonic movements during the Pasadena phase (Middle Pleistocene) reactivated the rise of Balș-Optași, which resulted in a change of the flow direction of the Jiu river to the south and a gradual descent to the southwest, sculpting the terrace system only to the left side of the Jiu river (Boengiu et al. 2011).

The Jiu terraces where Craiova is situated have provided the base for the development of human communities since the Neolithic era. Archaeological evidence belonging to this era and also from the Bronze Age, Iron Age (Georgescu et al. 1977, Nica 1979, Toropu 1979) or the Romanic Culture of V–VII centuries AD (Papilian 1979) attest the permanence of the communities in the area.

Developed as a weekly fair on the first terrace of the Jiu, Craiova became the residence of the Banul Olteniei – (a kind of governor) in the 15th century, becoming an attraction for numerous squires. Migration of the wealthy people determined a change in the settlement shape through the appearance of the boyar houses around the fair and the permanent extension of the city limits (Georgescu 1936). To further attest the evolution of the settlement are the written records regarding wells built on the border of the city which was in a constant expansion or the written records about the wells situated around the central fair. Relevant passages from historical documents are reproduced below and the location of the wells is visible in Figure 2.

Fig. 2

The well from Orevei road (known as Popova well, marked with no. 3 on the map), the Well from the Bishopric metoh (situated behind the current University of Craiova building, in the former Palace of Justice, which was built in the place of Ganescului Church, received at metoh by the Bishopric, marked with no. 4 on the map), The well that is called Prisacuta, on the outskirts of town, on the Bucharest road (on the road A.I. Cuza from today, in the downtown – no. 5 on the map), The well from Archangel Saint slum, close to the fish crossroads (today Fratii Buzesti street, beside the Archangels Saints church, marked with 6 on the map) (Georgescu 1923).

At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, the first urbanistic renewal started to emerge, particularly through the expansion of the wells network, sources of drinking water being essential to any modern settlement (Georgescu et al. 1977). In the beginning of the 20th century, extensive systematisation works began, which resulted in drainage of swamps from the floodplain, the draining of local streams and, in their place, the building of main current boulevards (Albă et al. 2018).

Today’s city, designated as a pole of growth in the Oltenia region, is pursuing the implementation of an integrated development strategy, where one of the main directions has been the development of tourism. In this regard, the main elements achieved by the city administration are the refurbishment of parks, rehabilitation of the historical centre and increase of cultural tourism, to which an increase of accommodation capacity has been added.

The expanding of touristic heritage by including sites considered as geoheritage will diversify tourist attractions and can be an additional source of income in the touristic industry of the city.

The Valley of 7 Wells represents an example of a landscape entirely transformed in order to be used for anthropic activities, initially for the purpose of supplying water to the dwellers of the city centre and the visitors, and then, anthropically retransformed, giving it a new appearance and utility.

During the Quaternary evolution, in the Craiova area, the Jiu river was characterised not only by a permanent movement towards the west, but also by a vertical one, which is reflected in the morphology of the area. The consequence of the neotectonic movements during the Pasadena phase (Middle Pleistocene) was the creation of the terrace system on the left side of the Jiu river. Besides the subsidence caused by the movements of the Earth’s surface, erosion has also occurred in the configuration of the Jiu corridor.

Until the Jiu embankment in the second half of the 20th century, the floodplain flooding frequently occurred in large flash floods, sometimes reaching up to the Valley of the 7 Wells, situated at the contact of the floodplain with the first slope terrace. The former Jiu channels and river meanders were covered by waters in flash floods and remained in this state for a long time, maintaining a marshy land with ponds (Albă et al. 2017), as is visible in Figure 3. Fragmentation of the T1 terrace is also a result of the lateral erosion of Jiu.

Fig. 3

From a lithological point of view, the area of Craiova is defined by the Quaternary deposits. The lithostratigraphic column of the Quaternary is based on clays, albescent and yellowish sands, followed by a layer of fine gravels (strate de Fratesti), related to the Early Pleistocene (Enache 2008).

In The Valley of the 7 Wells, numerous springs appeared above the ground, at the contact between the upper layers of clay sands and the lower ones made up of clay. The springs with a rich discharge had been round-up as drinking fountains, water being a vital element of the central fair situated nearby, nourishing not only the visitors and animals, but also the inhabitants of the city’s central area. The springs were round-up on both sides of the road that crossed the valley, four in the east and three in the west (Fig. 4a). With a centralised water supply and sewerage of the city, conceived in the beginning of the 20th century, the marshes and ponds from the floodplain were drained and the hillslope of the T1 terrace was anthropically reconfigured. The positioning of the site on the current map of Craiova is visible in Figure 4b.

Fig. 4a

Fig. 4b

In the 18th century, The Valley of the 7 Wells was located at the foot of the hill on which the imposing St. Dumitru Church, a symbolic element of the city, was being constructed.

In addition to the sketch of the city from 1780 (Fig. 3a), a representative image of the Valley of the 7 Wells is offered to us by a postcard from 1901 (Fig. 5). The wells were called 7 Wells from the Valley (Șeapte Făntăni din Vale), the most northern of them being known as the Well of Matei Voda. The fountains were built in the same period as the Popova Well (Buce-Răduț 2011), probably in the beginning of the 16th century (Firan, Firescu 1983). Until the 20th century, the water supply to the population was given only from springs and wells, there was no centralised water supply system, and in the central fair area, water was a much greater necessity for the horses to drink, which were the means of transport at the time.

Fig. 5

After systematisation of the city, in the interwar period, the springs of the 7 Wells were roundup and the resulting water was used to fill up the Tineretului swimming pool located nearby. The hillslope was terraced (Fig. 6), and the Valley of the 7 Wells, as the other valleys that crossed the town (Orbeţilor Valley, Opinca Valley), was cobbled and then paved with asphalt.

Fig. 6

At present, nothing reminds us of the former valley or the 7 Wells, the area being partly asphalted (Câmpia Islaz street) and partially integrated into the St. Dumitru Park, named also as Băniei Garden or Roses Garden.

Although today it is an invisible geomorphosite (Clivaz, Reynard 2017, Pica et al. 2017), The Valley of 7 Wells has a high potential to be a geoheritage, having an index VSGh = 20, which results from the following: –

it is a representative site for urban landscape evolution, showing the magnitude of landscape transformation (RP = 5),

According to Clivaz and Reynard (2017), The Valley of 7 Wells is enclosed in the category of geomorphosites destroyed or hidden by human activity; but by interpreting the images, maps and historical documents, it can be considered a geoheritage, according to the method developed by Pica et al. (2017).

The current hydrological network outlined at the end of the Early Pleistocene and the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, also the completion of the current valley of the Jiu and the small tributaries in the Craiova area, was settled in Holocene.

The presence of a clay basal deposit is brought to light from the drillings executed on the left side of the Jiu, over which are found intercalations of sands, clays and sandy clay. The well-developed floodplain is made up of alluvial deposits (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7

As The Valley of 7 Wells, the Obedeanu and Popova wells are situated at the contact of the Jiu floodplain with the versant terrace (Fig. 2).

Reconstruction of the hydrographic map for the year 1880 (Fig. 8), realised in previous studies (Albă et al. 2017, 2018) shows us that the points where the three wells are located represent the limit of large swamp areas which restricted urban expansion in the floodplain.

Fig. 8

Works of sewage for the Geanoglu and other ponds, draining of several local streams and of the water that resulted from the Valley of 7 Wells were designed in 1887. In this regard, the first work was the plane lifting of all the ponds and marshes between the Obedeanu Fountain, Cernele villages, Jiu channel and Popova well, performed by captain G. Savopol (Nicolaescu et al. 1997). Drainage works began in 1891, with most of the land being settled between 1900 and 1974 (Albă et al. 2017).

In the second half of the 19th century, the area of the marshes in the floodplain sector was included in the current perimeter of the city and represented approximately 28% of it; as a result of the public works launched in 1891 and continued since then (except for the periods of the two world wars), the area of the floodplain marshes decreased to about 2.5% in 1974, currently representing approximately 1.35%.

The Obedeanu Well (Fig. 9a, 9b) was built after the year 1774 (Stoicescu 1970) by Stefan Parșcoveanul (a kind of governor) on the place of another well the Obedencei’s well, which was begun by the Cupbearer Constantin Obedeanu and finished by his wife Stanca Obedeanca (Vasilescu 1927), in an area where there were secular springs probably (Avram et al. 2005).

Fig. 9a

Fig. 9b

Over time, the old well had deteriorated, especially during the Russian–Turkish war from 1768 to 1774, which led to its rebuilding. Near the new well, Stefan Parșcoveanul had arranged a pond, a courtyard and a gazebo. During the Austro-Russian-Turkish war of 1789–1792, the well degraded again, the gazebo had disappeared, and the pond was left in decay. At that time, a service for the maintenance of wells was created, consisting of four persons exempt from taxes scutelnici, eight well sinkers fantanari and a person who made oil ulier (Vasilescu 1927), but the fountain was in the administration of the Râmnic Bishopric, which had to take care of the repairs. In an anaphora from 1797, a written report addressed to the ruler Alexandru Ipsilante, not only the construction of two new wells in Craiova was requested, but also the repair of four degraded wells, including the Obedeanu and Popova Wells (Bulat 1922), as the Bishopric had left them in decay. The wells were repaired, and thanks to their discharge, the Obedeanu fountain has become the most important source of water for the western half of the city (Nicolaescu et al. 1997).

In the years 1835–1836, through a channel system consisting of over 15,500 tiles urloaie, the water from the Obedeanu fountain was being transported to the Obedeanu Church, where a drinking fountain was made, and further down to the Madona Dudu Church, where another one was also made (Nicolaescu et al. 1997).

At present, it is one of the few functional wells in the city, and a part of the inhabitants from the northwestern part of the city still prefer to use the water from it for supplying, considering it to have water of superior quality.

For Obedeanu Well, the index VSGh was calculated as VSGh = 17, which resulted from the following: –

the site is an element that marks the transformation of the landscape in the area (RP = 3),

The Popova well – the oldest well of Craiova, which is well-preserved today, was rebuilt by the Wallachian voivode Matei Basarab and his wife, Mrs Flina, in the years 1651–1652, which shows it existed long before this year. The Popova Well is an evidence of the town’s delimitation in the past and is located at the exit to Bechet. The inscription in stone made in 1651, written in Cyrillic (Fig. 10a), included the message: Fostau făcută den moşi den stremoşie Domniei Meale ... ca să fie pomană în veac... (Pessiacov 1914) – It was made by the ancestors of my reign … to be alms for centuries…, which indicates the long history of this well. The previous existence of the well is also established by documents mentioning lodging of the ruler Radu Mihnea in this place in 1613 (Nicolaescu et al. 1997). At the beginning of the 16th century, it was known with the name The Well from Orevei road or Fantana Basarabeasca (Firan, Firescu 1983).

Fig. 10a

Besides the essential role of supplying water for the inhabitants, at that time, the fountains were given particular attention by the religious duties, being embellished and hallowed almost like the churches. This feature of Wallachian fountain decoration was also noted by foreigners who passed through Craiova, and likened them to those in Turkey and Eastern countries. The Popova Well was preferred by those who travelled through the city, military or civilians, being considered a spring of living water (Pessiacov 1914).

Regarding this well, several repairs and restorations were recorded between the 18th and 20th centuries, of which notable are the restoration made by the family of the landowner Constantin Mihail in 1905 (Nicolaescu et al. 1997) and the one in 1910 when his grandson, Dini Mihai, rebuilt the fountain, discovering during the works two other previous catches, behind the drinking fountain, one worked in oak and another in the wall (Georgescu 1936). In the remnants of the previous capture wall, traces of a rudimentary aqueduct and several Roman bricks were identified (Georgescu 1936). A. Georgescu considered the capture from the wall as the one made by the ancestors of Matei Voda Basarb and the wooden one from the 18th century. Nowadays, the Popova Fountain is a historical monument built of brick, a cubic-shaped construction with a side of approximately 4 m and two sides show the inscriptions-pisans from 1651 to 1652 and 1905 (Fig. 10b). From the preserved descriptions and sketches of the well result that the current shape of the fountain (Fig. 11) preserves the original architectural form and style.

Fig. 10b

Fig. 11

The accessibility towards the Popova Well is now facilitated by the recent road development at the intersection of which the well is situated, but the history and importance of the well are too little known, and therefore poorly promoted.

The VSGh index for Craiova’s oldest fountain, preserved to date, is very high: VSGh = 21: –

the Popova Well represents the limit of an intensely transformed area, formed in the past predominately from ponds and marches (RP = 4),