Abstract:
Referring to current European documents and practices, the paper examines how
the cultural heritage of cities can make a positive contribution to creating a public
space that respond to the needs of urban actors who use this space making the central
areas of historical city to respond today’s users aspiring to a European high standard
of living. We compare two capital cities (Bucharest and Chisinau), with a common
history, but different level of development, with different sustainable development
strategies, but following simultaneously two large general purposes: (1) developing
the urban space that respond to the user’s needs (2) preserving the identity of the
place.