Analele Universităţii din Oradea, Seria Geografie Year XXIII, no. 2/2013 (December), pp. 375-385 ISSN 1221-1273, E-ISSN 2065-3409 Article no. 232118-639 SPATIAL DYNAMICS OF CRAIOVA MUNICIPALITY. TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE CITY’S RELATION WITH ITS PERIPHERIES Cristina ŞOŞEA University of Craiova, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Geography Department, Craiova, Romania, e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract: The study pursues the spatial coordinates of Craiova municipality’s rhythm of evolution, starting with the medieval period until nowadays, outlining the periods of more accelerated growth and the pattern of territorial expansion, but also the moments of urban involution, their causalities and share in changing the urban structure. There are permanent references regarding the relations between the structural and the functional changes and furthermore, a bilateral regard center-periphery. Starting from the urban heartland surrounding Elca dell, the city expanded by gradually integrating the rural settlements located nearby, undergoing an ascending degree of spatial compactness, continuous restructuring of the urban tissue and spatial readjustment of center-periphery dichotomy, as the demographical augmentations and consequences of economic restructuring imposed it. Key words: spatial dynamics, periphery, Craiova, urban growth. * * * * * * INTRODUCTION Reflection of the demographical vitality and the ascending economic potential, Craiova municipality’s dynamics and present-day structure are the result of complex natural and socio- economic factors, whose role and share have been modified in time and space, according to historical and political conditioning. The urban heartland has evolved by always being reshaped, firstly by the physical-geographical and secondly by the social, economic and historical aspects. While the first ones imprinted the built up space’s physiognomy, texture and form, the second one influenced the extension, the shrink, the density augmentation within the heartland.