Cultural Heritage, Identity, and Power Dynamics: Guiding Practices in Oradea, Romania

The study highlights how heritage is constructed, contested and interpreted in the multiethnic city of Oradea, Romania. Embedded in theoretical conceptual frameworks related to heritage studies, power dynamics and identity, it analyzes controversies related to the naming and renaming of monuments and public spaces across political regime changes, emphasizing how these practices reflect broader debates about public memory. The conceptual framework is consolidated by empirical data collected from 103 respondents from across 18 countries meant to spotlight the perceptions of political influence and interpretative authority in heritage governance. Oradea is used as a case study due to its multiculturalism and ethnic pluralism of Romanian, Hungarian and Jewish past to show how heritage is preserved, which institutional cultural policies are adopted and how monuments, urban public spaces and street names have been preserved or changed across political regimes changes from communism to democracy. In this scope the role of tour guides practices as cultural brokers who can shape the heritage public understanding is investigated. The article concludes that the mixed approach of political power, cultural pluralism and interpretative attitudes shape Oradea city’s multicultural heritage, emphasizing both challenges and opportunities of managing diverse past heritage in contemporary Romanian cities for the capitalization of tourism.