Activists trying to save historic buildings in Bucharest from being bulldozed in a road project massed outside the Culture Ministry and handed in a petition on Wednesday to demand their preservation.

More than 100 leading intellectuals signed the petition, urging the Culture Minister to maintain the listed status of buildings such as Matache Hall, which is in danger of being demolished to make way for a cross-town highway.

“We turn to you in the hope that you put an end to the delisting of monuments which constitutes the first step towards their destruction,” said the petition addressed to Culture Minister Kelemen Hunor.

A heritage commission is to decide whether Matache Hall, one of the oldest markets in the Romanian capital, and other historic buildings can be delisted to enable a road to be built from north to south Bucharest. The city’s municipality argues the road will relieve traffic congestion and that the historic buildings are “in a bad state”.

But in a city where entire districts were razed by the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to build a huge palace in the 1980s, the planned demolitions have angered many residents.

“When you have historic monuments in a bad state of preservation, a bulldozer is not the solution”, former Culture Minister Theodor Paleologu said during a protest in front of the ministry.

He also questioned the whole idea of building such a major cross-town highway at a time when other cities are trying to restrict the number of cars in downtown areas.

An adviser to the minister, Radu Enache told the press that “the ministry will follow the legal procedures” but “does not have an opinion on the matter”.

“The Matache Hall is currently an historical monument and cannot be demolished. But the commission on historic monuments can decide to delist monuments”, he added.