Timisoara – capital of the Banat

Why Timisoara?

“Look around and love this city because it fully deserves to be loved” – Else von Schuster

Often, when we speak about Timisoara, we refer to it as the Little Vienna, a city of flowers, parks, an economic model or the place where various cultures and traditions merge. Timisoara has a privileged location in Central and Eastern Europe, being situated at an average distance of about 550 km from Bucharest, the capital of Romania, about 170 km from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and Montenegro, and about 300 km from Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

Timsoara is situated in a plain region, crossed by two rivers the Timis and the Bega.

It is presumed that, in ancient times, when the land was populated by Dacians, on the site where the city lies today there lay a place called Zambara. The place was destroyed following the invasion of the Avars and a new camp was built in its place, called Beguey, after the river Begh (Bega, also called the Lesser Timis). The newly built town was situated in a strategically important area, namely the area of the two Timis rivers (the Greater and the Lesser Timis).

Its geographic location made Timisoara an important strategic location at the beginning of the 18^th century, mainly due to the expansion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1716, after the siege of the city by Eugen of Savoy, the city fell under Austro-Hungarian domination. The Citadel, which was once part of the stronghold of the City of timisoara, currently hosts the public library, art galleries, shopping centres and the collection of folk art of the Museum of the Banat.

The Catholic Dome in Union Square is one of the most representative baroque buildings of the city, built between 1736-1774, after the project of J. J. Schelbauer.

In the 19^th century, Timisoara became an important industrial centre with thousands of workers, mainly owing to its Eastern district (called the Fabric or “Factory” district), where the water of the Bega river was used in industry. After 1849, Timisoara became the capital of Serbian Voivodina and the Timis Banat, and the seat of the governor. This administrative form ended in 1860, and the territory passed again under Hungarian administration. In 1918, most of the Banat Region was annexed to Romania. In 1857, the railway between Szeged – Timisoara was built, thus creating a direct connection between our city and Budapest and Vienna. The building of the Railways Station in the Josefin district, which was subsequently modernized between 1896 – 1898; after the bombings of World War II, the Railways Station was rebuilt again in keeping with its original architecture. The building received its current, more modernistic design in 1974.

Between 1871 – 1897 the railways network extended all over the region, joining the city with Arad, Caransebes, Orsova, Sinnicolau Mare, buzias, Radna and Modos. The Eastern Railways Station, in the Fabric district, was built in 1876. The first telegraph office opened on 24 April 1854; the first phone line was inaugurated in 1879, with an initial number of 52 subscribers. Public gas lighting was introduced in 1760, and in 1770 there were 100 such gas lamps burning in the city. This makes Timisoara the first city in Romania with public gas lighting, and the first city in Continental Europe to introduce public electrical lighting since 1884.

The first horse-driven streetcar was introduced in Timisoara in 1869, followed by the electrical streetcar in 1899. Timisoara had an original centenary of its streetcar system, by organizing a parade of all the types of streetcars, including the horse-driven one. The first pharmacy and the first hospital were built between 1735 – 1737, the hospital being inaugurated by the monastic order of the Brothers of Mercy, but both the church and the hospital burned down during the 1848 revolution, being subsequently rebuilt on the place where today lies the Hospital of Ophthalmology.  In 1751, we find references about another city hospital, the Hospital of Dermatology. The building of the Rascian Magistrate, currently the “Nicholaus Lenau” High-school, was built in 1761. At one point, the building also housed the German Theatre, among whose most distinguished guests were Franz Liszt, Johann Strauss-son, and Mihai Eminescu. In 1875, in the Victory Square, the new theatre was build in the style of the Renaissance, on the site where today lie the National Theatre and the Romanian Opera.

The buildings surrounding the Victory Square are bordered, on the south, by the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral and on the north by the National theatre. In the middle of these monumental buildings lie two of Timisoara’s landmarks, the so-called Fountain with Fish and the statue of the she-wolf with Romulus and Remus, a replica of the famous “Lupa Capitolina” in Rome.

The “Capitol” Cinema, situated next to the Cathedral, was built by the contractors J. Steiner between 1929 – 1930, and besides being a cinema hall the building also houses the “Banatul” Philharmonic. Opposite the cinema lies the imposing building of the City Hall, which previously housed the School for Higher Commercial Education.

At the end of the Victory Boulevard opens another boulevard, which in December 1989 witnessed part of the events of the time and consequently bears the generic name of Boulevard of the Revolution of Timisoara. The current buildings of the “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, the former building of the Roman-Catholic Seminar and the Prefect’s Office of the Timis County which was initially meant to house the “Sofia Imbroane” Girls School. The building in which the “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy is currently located represented, before 1945, one of the most important cultural centres of the “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, the German School “Banatia”.

There is an unusually great number of parks in Timisoara: the Central Park, the Prak of the Roses, the Park of Justice, the Botanical Park, the Children’s Park, the Queen Mary Park.

Timisoara also offers a wide variety of places for people to spend their spare time, providing for both spiritual and physical needs.

The Opera Square, the Union Square and the Liberty Square are only a few of the beautiful and picturesque places that make the delight of any visitor.

The passage of time and the pulse of modern everyday life have left their marks on Little Vienna

Last update : 2009