Innovation and liberty starts in Timisoara!
Timisoara, firstly mentioned in documents more than 730 years ago, is the main city of Timis county, located in Timis Plain which crossed by the Bega and Timis rivers. Their presence has influenced the development of the place even from the times when it was a fortress with bastions. Timisoara is the third city in Romania, with a population of 317,660 inhabitants (2002).
Timisoara has been an important economic center since the 18th century when the Habsburg administration was installed. Due to Austrian colonization, ethnic and religious diversity and innovative laws, the economy began to develop.
The technicians and craftsmen that settled in the city established guilds and helped develop the city’s economy. Notably, in 1717 Temesvar became host to the region’s first beer factory.
During the Industrial Revolution numerous modern innovations were introduced. It was the first city in the monarchy with street illumination, and the first city on mainland Europe illuminated by electric light.
The Tisza (Bega) river was also channeled during this time. It was the first navigable canal on current Romanian territory. This way, Timisoara had contact with Europe, and even with the rest of the world through the Black Sea, leading to the local development of commercialism. In the 19th century the railway system of the Hungarian Kingdom reached Temesvar.
Timisoara was the first city in the country with international routes economic boom as the amount of foreign investment, especially in high-tech sectors, has risen.
The Fall of the Communism all around Europe
Towards the end of 1989, especially in the western part of Romania, people found out from foreign television (Hungarian, Yugoslavian) and Romanian-language broadcasts of Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, the changes that took place in Europe. Therefore it was possible that an apparently common event (arbitrary removal of pastor Laszlo Tokes of the Reformed Church in Timisoara scheduled for 15 December 1989) to become a pretext for a popular revolt in Timisoara, transformed in a revolution.
The 22nd of December was declared Day of Victory of the Romanian Revolution. Starting from that evening, forces unidentified until today, but declared by the new authorities as counter-revolutionary and faithful communist regime, opened fire on civilians and military units from several cities, causing panic and confusion.
Landmarks
Piata Unirii (Union Square)
Certainly every tourist visiting the city reaches Union Square. The city’s oldest square, Baroque style, hosts the Dome or the Episcopal Roman-Catholic Cathedral, the Baroque Palace, Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, N. Lenau High School, Holy Trinity Monument, mineral water fountain and other buildings built in the XVIII and XIX centuries. Right next to the pharmacy nearby the Baroque Palace, between the paving slabs of the square, one can see on a stone the design of the Old Fortress built in the XIX century. Union Square is impressive by its size, the style and the buildings that surround it. They tell the story of Timisoara, but this is also the place of the effervescent present, as here are organized different cultural events during summer.
Piata Victoriei (Victory Square)
Also known as Opera Square or Revolution Square, located in city center, Victoria Square is one of the symbols of Timisoara. It is bordered by imposing buildings, representative of secession architecture in Timisoara, in the beginning of the twentieth century. Metropolitan Cathedral, built in Moldavian Byzantine style, with its towers covered with glazed tiles, dominates the southern part of the square. On the other side, there is the theater and the opera, building that hosts numerous cultural events organized by the three state theaters: Romanian, German and Hungarian. A carpet of flowers, a path with benches and fountain with fish decorate the center, where there are also other monuments. The pedestrian area hosts during the year various events – winter fair, Martisor fair, concerts and other cultural and artistic events. Nearby are Hunyadi Castle, Bega River and other attractions. The 1989 Revolution remains vivid in the memory of people from Timisoara, who gathered in Victoria Square to fight against the communist regime.
Palatul Baroc (Baroque Palace)
Built in the XVIII century, it has become during the official residence of Timis County, in the VIII and IX century, the home of the governor of the Timisan Banat and Vojvodina (1849-1860), and the Prefecture (twentieth century). Since 1984, it houses the Museum of Art.
Catedrala Mitropolitana Ortodoxa (Metropolitan Orthodox Cathedral)
It is one of the symbols of the city. It was built between 1936 and 1946. Its architecture combines Byzantine style with old Moldavian elements. It has 11 towers and a height of 83 m. The shape is cruciform; the towers are covered with colored glazed tiles, forming typical Romanian motifs. The big dome is made in Moldavian style, the lateral vaults in the Byzantine style and the floor is made of mosaic inspired by carpets from the Banat region. The seven bells weighing 8 tons, each corresponding to a musical tone and have inscription from holy texts. They were made of a rare material, brought from the Islands of Sumatra and Borneo and chorded by composer Sabin Dragoi. The harmony Bells, electrically operated, is very special. The cathedral was consecrated in 1946, in the presence of its founder, King Michael I of Romania and its titular saints are Sf. Trei Ierarhi and Sf. Iosif from Partos. Cathedral houses the old ecclesiastic art collection of Timisoara Archiepiscopacy.
Opera – Teatrul National (Opera House, National Theater)
The theater of Timisoara was first mentioned in a document in 1753. Between 1761 and 1874 theatrical performances were held in the former building of the magistrate rascian (Nikolaus Lenau school today), where in 1846, Franz Liszt held three concerts, and in 1847 Johann Strauss the son conducted a concert. In 1868, the band Pascaly, from which Mihai Eminescu was part, gave three performances. Opera House was built between 1872 and 1875, being designed by the Viennese architects Fellner and Hellmer in Renaissance style. Devastated by two fires, it was rebuilt between 1923 and1928, except for the sides. The main facade and the auditorium are in Neo-Byzantine style, and the lateral facades are Renaissance-style. The building hosts four major cultural institutions, the Romanian Opera, National Theatre, German Theatre and the Hungarian State Theatre, Timisoara being the only European city where the state operates three theaters in different languages.
Bastionul (The Bastion)
Between 1723 and 1765, has built in Timisoara the largest fortress in Vauban style form the country. It had nine bastions and had an important role in defense in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, in the early 20th century, the fortress prevented the development of the city and it was decided to demolish it. A part of the fortification from the old Timisoara still exists today. It is named “Bastion” or “Theresia Bastion”.
Most important premieres
1718 – Opening of the first elementary schools in Timisoara, the first in Romania;
1745 – Construction of the municipal hospital, the first in Romania (24 years before Vienna and 34 years before Budapest);
1753 – Timisoara is a city with a permanent theatrical season (the third city of the Habsburg monarchy, after Vienna and Budapest);
1771 – The first newspaper in Romania and also the first German newspaper in south-eastern Europe “Temeswarer Nachrichten” was published
1815 – Josef Klapka library, first public lending library in the Habsburg Empire, the kingdom of Hungary and the Romanian territory;
1823 – Janos Bolyai announces the discovery of the world’s first non-Euclidean geometry;
1884 – First town on the European continent with electric lighted streets, with 731 lamps;
1886 – First ambulance station in Hungary and Romania;
1895 – First asphalt road in Romania;
1899 – First electric tram in Romania;
1969 – Prof. Dr. Ghermanescu published the first encyclopedia in the world of functional equations;
1989 – The first free town in Romania;
1996 – Birth of first child conceived in vitro in Romania, and the first child conceived by embriotransfer technique, made the team of Professor Ioan Munteanu;
2001 – The first laser heart surgery in Romania;
2003 – Planning the first sculpture park in Romania, at the intersection of Mures street with Route Martyrs;
2003 – The first transplant of hematopoietic stem cells, to regenerate heart muscle in a patient with extensive myocardial infarction (first in Eastern Europe, the team of Prof. Dr. Stefan I. Dragulescu).
