The outstanding industrial heritage of Reșița: the old UCMR platform in focus

Over the summer, we toured again the old UCMR platform, the one that stretches along the left bank of the Bârzava River, in the old, so-called „working-class”, town of Reșița, below the Golului workers’ colony – you’ll find below this article a number of photos from some of our site exploration tours over the past few years. The old UCMR platform was developed between 1886–1975 and is nicknamed locally the `ABC platform`. We haven’t yet figured out why so, possibly because it has everything on it. Across over 30 hectares, the site includes several tens of thousands of square meters of industrial halls (part of them in use, taken over by Hidroelectrica), old administrative buildings and RDI offices, two bunkers that could offer shelter to several thousands of critical employees, a protocol villa, the former polyclinic and factory park, a small museum full of precious artifacts and a complex of factory greenhouses.

The Reșița Machine Building Plant (abbreviated in Romanian as UCMR) is a branch of the UDR – Uzinele de Fier și Domeniile Reșița – encompassing the machine building industry branch, complementing the steel-making branch spanning across the river, on the Reșița Steelworks (abbreviated in Romanian as CSR). UCMR has been, for a long time, the largest enterprise in western Romania, producing steam locomotives, power equipment, diesel engines and equipment for hydropower, naval transport and oil extraction industries. At its peak, the lives of almost 30 thousand employees revolved around UCMR. Thus, these factories deeply marked the local identity: almost every resident of Reșița had an UCMR employee in their family. Across our past 9 years of sustained activity in Reșița, we have observed a huge attachment to everything that UCMR means, derived from the local prosperity and pride that the enterprise generated.

Over the last 30 years, several former industrial plants developed by UCMR have undergone profound transformations. The largest of these, the Mociur site, which stretched over 60 hectares, was gradually completely demolished (here is a sequence of the demolition), except for 2 structures with an uncertain future (the cooling tower and the bearing hall).

In 2024, the old UCMR platform, the historical hearth of the enterprise, and the most valuable ensemble of the entire enterprise heritage, reached a crossroads. A significant part of this platform was taken over by Hidroelectrica. According to the official statement of the company available here, UCMR’s asset base is “unique in South-Eastern Europe and essential in streamlining Hidroelectrica’s maintenance and re-engineering activity” given that UMCR“ has contributed over time to equipping approximately 80% of Hidroelectrica’s hidropower plants”.

The rest of the platform is managed by an insolvency firm and is to be dismantled and capitalized on. Faced with this turning point, a joint mobilization is necessary – of experts, the local community, authorities and the private sector – to answer essential questions: what is valuable and worth preserving as industrial heritage? how can the remains of the old platform be transformed to new uses and who assumes this process?

Reșița City Hall has already taken a first step in 2025, acquiring significant real estate (the Red and the Protocol Vila – both class B historical monuments, a bunker, annexed buildings and some 6.4 ha of land), with the declared intention of also making efforts to acquire the Diesel Hall and the UCMR Museum.

However, the acquisition is only the beginning of a long and complex process: documentation, generation of conversion scenarios, building political consensus and public support, mobilization of expertise and financial resources. We have set out to mobilize the Reșița 250 LAB network starting in 2026 towards this platform, welcoming and supporting these first initiatives of Reșița City Hall. Stay tuned for news and keep an eye on www.muzeulvirtualresita.ro for our ongoing actions in Reșița!