March 28, 2024
 

General Dragalina Barracks, today County Military Centre

Data related to the building/site

1. Name: General Dragalina Barracks, today County Military Centre

2. Listed building entry no. (2010): SJ-II-m-B-04985

3. Location: Zalău Municipality, 11 1 Decembrie 1918 Square, Sălaj Co.

4. Dating: approx. 1880-1890

5. Owner: Sălaj County Council

6. History of construction:

Judging by the architectural decorative elements, the General Dragalina Barracks (the County Military Centre) was built in a single phase, sometime between 1880 and 1890. The sober and monumental character of the building is typical of military buildings. Its first documentary evidences are those few archive photographs, which have captured the building with an ampler main elevation than that of today, articulated with sixteen opening axes. In Zalău, a town which became the county's seat after 1965, as a consequence of the need to systematise the central area, a representative square was created. This was when the building's lateral parts of were demolished, along with the western neighbouring one-storey buildings. Thus, the 1 Decembrie 1918 Square was created, as well as new streets in the barracks' immediate vicinity. The new, shorter elevations of the main wing were treated similarly to the main one.

Data about the investment

1. Title of design: Conservation of the historical and cultural heritage of the Sălaj County Council – the buildings of the County Military Centre, the Zalău County History Museum and the Ioan Sima Art Gallery

2. Contract no.: 288/2008 (design), 322/2010 (technical assistance)

3. Year/period of accomplishing the investment: 2008-2012

4. Design team:

4.1. General designer and head of design: Utilitas Ltd. Cluj-Napoca; Éva EKE

4.2. Speciality designer: Pieme Ltd. Cluj-Napoca, Medinstal Ltd. Cluj-Napoca

4.3. Researches and studies: art history: Zsolt KOVÁCS; building biology: Anna SZABÓ; building physics: Ana COSMA, Klára MAGYARI, PhD; soil mechanics: Alexandru SABO; structural expert: Bálint SZABÓ, PhD

4.4. Architecture: Éva DEZSŐ, Andreea MILEA, Zsolt SZÉNÁSI

4.5. Structure: Zsuzsanna GERGELY, Imola KIRIZSÁN, Katalin LÁSZLÓ

4.6. Building services engineering: Alexandru MOCAN, Erzsébet SZABÓ, Magdalena AMBRUŞ, Luca GÂRBU

4.7. Contractor: Construcţii Erbaşu PCL Bucureşti

5. The firm's level of involvement in the investment: general designer

6. Beneficiary: Sălaj County Council

7. Funds/financing: from European funds

8. The nature of intervention:

Following improper maintenance, a part of the military centre building collapsed between its design and construction stages (2009), so that the north-western side of the building had to be completely reconstructed. The many reconstructions implemented during the building’s 120 years of existence requested major interventions on the load-bearing walls, respectively on the planar timber ceiling slab. The roof structure was conserved, the existing sub-units being completed only where necessary.

9. Current state of the investment: in course of finalising