To the borders of Art Nouveau

Czernowitz, former capital of the Bukowina in the Hapsburg Empire, changed its political context twice and loose its role and visibility. Harbin, built as a Russian "island" in Northern China beyond the borderline was a major railway town along the Transiberian line branch, established in 1905, but today is a Chinese megalopolis. In both cities – flourished between XIXth and XXth centuries - the Jewish community played a major role. The paper compares these cities where Art Nouveau architecture was the key way to exhibit their “modernity”. In both towns the landmarks, the urban icons “speak” the same architectural Art Nouveau language: the theatre, the Postsparkasse and the new railway station in Czernowitz, the CER (China Eastern Railway) buildings in Harbin, here according to the Russian (Europe-based) spread of the style. These two case-studies, not so well known, worth a focus to show how the European spread of Art Nouveau went to the limit, in areas that were intended as the extreme outposts of the Western-style Civilization as a link to join people and cultures.