“Romanian Atlantis”: the Case of Costești Village in the Context of the Construction of the Stânca-Costești Hydrotechnical Node (Historical and Memorialistic Preliminaries)

Abstract

The hydrotechnical projects from the communist era were accompanied by the displacement and flooding of hundreds of localities. Following the construction of the Stânca-Costești Hydrotechnical Node, several localities on both sides of the Prut were swallowed by water, and a community of villages symbolically called “Romanian Atlantis” was erased from the map. The drama of the displaced inhabitants of the old hearths was not reflected at all in the propaganda newspapers of the time who preferred to praise the economic and energy advantages of the socialist construction site. After the fall of communism in the memorial sources of the archaeologists, who carried out excavations on the estates of the villages that were later flooded, tragic aspects of this past event are revealed.

Keywords

• “romanian atlantis”
• costești
• stânca
• hydrotechnical node
• propaganda