Place:Timișoara, Timiș, Romania

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NameTimișoara
Alt namesTimişoara
Castrum Temesiensissource: Canby, Historic Places (1984) II, 934
Temesiensissource: Encyclopædia Britannica (1988) XI, 781
Temesvársource: Rand McNally Atlas (1994) I-174
Temesvársource: Wikipedia
Timișoarasource: Getty Vocabulary Program
TypeCity
Coordinates45.75°N 21.25°E
Located inTimiș, Romania
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Timișoara (, ; , also or ; ; ; see other names) is the capital city of Timiș County and the main economic, social and cultural centre in western Romania. Located on the Bega River, Timișoara is considered the informal capital city of the historical Banat, which is nowadays broadly considered a subregion of Transylvania. From 1848 to 1860 it was the capital of the Serbian Vojvodina and the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar. With 319,279 inhabitants at the 2011 census, Timișoara was then the country's third most populous city, after Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca. It is home to almost half a million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, while the Timișoara–Arad conurbation concentrates more than 70% of the population of Timiș and Arad counties. Timișoara is a multicultural city, being the home of 21 different ethnicities and 18 religions. Interculturality has long been a special characteristic for the western part of the country.

Conquered in 1716 by the Austrians from the Ottoman Turks, Timișoara developed in the following centuries behind the fortifications and in the urban nuclei located around them. During the second half of the 19th century, the fortress began to lose its usefulness, due to many developments in the military technology. Former bastions and military spaces were demolished and replaced with new boulevards and neighbourhoods. Timișoara was the first city in the Habsburg monarchy with street lighting (1760) and the first European city to be lit by electric street lamps in 1884. It opened the first public lending library in the Habsburg monarchy and built a municipal hospital 24 years before Vienna.[1] Also, it published the first German newspaper in Southeast Europe (Temeswarer Nachrichten).[1] Timișoara was the starting point of the Romanian Revolution.

Timișoara is one of the most important educational centres in Romania, with about 40,000 students enrolled in the city's six universities. Like many other large cities in Romania, Timișoara is a medical tourism service provider, especially for dental care and cosmetic surgery. Timișoara has made several breakthroughs in Romanian medicine, including the first in vitro fertilization, the first laser heart surgery and the first stem cell transplant.[1] As a technology hub, the city has one of the most powerful IT sectors in Romania alongside Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, and Brașov. In 2013, Timișoara had the fastest internet download speed in the world.

Nicknamed the "Little Vienna" or the "City of Flowers", Timișoara is noted for its large number of historical monuments and its 36 parks and green spaces. The spa resorts Buziaș and Băile Călacea are located at a distance of 30 and 27 km from the city, respectively, being mentioned since Roman times for the properties of healing waters. Along with Oradea, Timișoara is part of the Art Nouveau European Route. It is also a member of Eurocities. Timișoara has an active cultural scene due to the city's three state theatres, opera, philharmonic and many other cultural institutions. The city will be the next European Capital of Culture in 2023.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Early history

The region bounded by the Mureș, the Tisza and the Danube was very fertile and offered favourable conditions for food and human livelihood yet in 4000 BC. Archeological remains attested the presence of a population of farmers, hunters and artisans, whose existence was favoured by mild climate, fertile soil and abundant water and forests.

The first identifiable civilisation in Banat were the Dacians who left traces of their past. Several Romanian historians have advanced the idea that the current location of Timișoara corresponds to the Dacian settlement of Zurobara. Although its location is unknown, the coordinates given by geographer Ptolemy in Geographike Hyphegesis place it in the northwest of Banat.

Middle Ages

It is assumed that in the 9th century Knyaz Glad ruled over these lands. He accepted Hungarian sovereignty. However, so far no document dating back to that period has been discovered.[2] Timișoara was first officially mentioned in 1212 as the Roman castrum Temesiensis or castrum regium Themes. However, this year is disputed by many historians who are of the opinion that the city's first documentary mention comes from 1266, when heir apparent Stephen V of Hungary donates part of the Tymes fortress, built by his father, Béla IV, to Count Parabuch. The city was destroyed by the Tatars in the 13th century,[3] but the city was rebuilt and grew considerably during the reign of Charles I of Hungary, who, upon his visit there in 1307, ordered the strengthening of the fortress with stone walls and the building of a royal palace. The palace was built by Italian craftsmen and was organised around a rectangular court having a main body provided with a dungeon or a tower. He even moved the royal seat from Buda to Timișoara between 1316 and 1323.[2] Timișoara's importance also grew due to its strategic location, which facilitated control over the Banat plain.[4]

By the middle of the 14th century, Timișoara was at the forefront of Western Christendom's battle against the Muslim Ottoman Turks. In 1394, the Turks led by Bayezid I passed Nagybecskerek (present-day Zrenjanin) and Timișoara on their way to Wallachia where they were defeated by Voivode Mircea the Elder in the battle of Rovine.[2] Timișoara once again served as a concentration point for the Christian armed forces, this time for the battle of Nicopolis. After the Christians' defeat, the Ottomans devastated Banat to Timișoara, from where they were expelled by Count István Losonczy.[2] Appointed Count of Timiș in 1440, John Hunyadi moved with his family to Timișoara, which he would turn into a permanent military camp. John Hunyadi would come to be known throughout the region for his victory in Belgrade over the Ottomans, being considered at that time a defender of Christianity. An important event in the city's history was the peasant uprising led by György Dózsa. On 10 August 1514 he tried to change the course of Bega River to be able to enter more easily into the city, but he was defeated by attacks from both inside and outside the city.[2]

1552–1716: Ottoman rule

The fall of Belgrade in 1521 and the defeat at Mohács in 1526 caused the division of the Hungarian Kingdom in three parts, and Banat became the object of contention between the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary and Ottomans. After a failed siege in 1551, the Turks regrouped and returned with a new strategy. On 22 April 1552, a 160,000-strong army led by Kara Ahmed Pasha conquered the city and transformed it into a capital city in the region (Eyalet of Temeşvar). The local military commander, István Losonczy, and other Christians were massacred on 27 July 1552 while escaping the city through the Azapilor Gate. After the death of John Zápolya, Habsburgs tried to obtain Transylvania and Banat, including Timișoara, with mixed results; Transylvania even entered into dual vassalage for a time.[2]

Timișoara remained under the Ottoman rule for 164 years, controlled directly by the Sultan and enjoying a special status, similar to other cities in the region, such as Budapest and Belgrade. During this period, Timișoara was home to a large Islamic community and produced famous historical figures, such as Osman Ağa of Temeşvar.

Except for a period in the late 16th century, the city did not suffer sieges until the end of the 17th century. In 1594, Gregory Palotić, Ban of Lugos and Karánsebes, started an anti-Ottoman uprising in Banat, having its starting point in Nagybecskerek. Following a strong Transylvanian offensive led by György Borbély, the Christian army conquered several towns, but Timișoara remained untouched. Another attempt to retake the city took place in 1596, when an army of Sigismund Báthory began the siege of the city. After 40 days of futile efforts, the besiegers drew back.

1716–1860: Habsburg rule

After the victory at Petrovaradin on 5 August 1716, the Austrian army led by Prince Eugene of Savoy decided to conquer Timișoara. The Ottoman military, the kuruc and the Turkish civilian population were forced to leave the city after a 48-day siege marked by repeated bombings that destroyed much of the city's buildings. After the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), the Banat of Temeswar became the province of the Habsburg monarchy and was proclaimed "possession of the Crown" with a military administration which ruled Timișoara until 1751 when it was replaced by a civil one.

After the conquest of Banat, the imperial authorities in Vienna began an extensive process of colonization, using especially German Catholics (Swabians) from Württemberg, Swabia, Nassau, etc.[2] In Timișoara, the Swabians settled mainly in Fabric, where they strongly developed craftsmanship. The main function of Timișoara during this period was that of a military fortress. The existing fortifications could not cope with the new military techniques, so the entire fortress was rebuilt in a late, flat and inconsistent adaptation of the Vauban style. It had an area 10 times larger than the medieval Turkish fortress. Between 1728 and 1732, Bega River was regulated, creating a navigable canal.[2]

Under the political pressure of the Hungarian Diet, the Viennese Imperial Court accepted that the three counties of Banat to be reincorporated into the Hungarian Kingdom, in 1779. In 1781 Joseph II declared Timișoara free from the county authority and, to prevent the nobles from interfering with the administration of the city, he raised it to the rank of a "free royal city".[2] This status would secure Timișoara's internal self-government, the right to have representatives in the Diet and that of disposing its own revenues. The city was under siege in 1848 for 107 days. The Hungarians unsuccessfully tried to capture the fortress in the battle of Temesvár. It was the last major battle in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.[3] By the March Constitution, the region was incorporated to the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar, which became a crownland of the Austrian Empire. The new imperial province, the existence of which had also been consecrated by the imperial decree of 18 November 1849, was ruled both militarily and civilly, and the official languages were German and "Illyrian" (what would come to be known as Serbo-Croatian). Timișoara was designated as the residence of the governor, and the city maintained its privileges as a free royal city.[2]

19th–20th centuries

In 1860, the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar was abolished and most of its territory was incorporated into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary, although direct Hungarian rule began only following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, after the establishment of the dual monarchy. As part of Austria-Hungary, the city experienced a fast economic and demographic growth. Credit institutions invested large sums in the development of local industry; at the turn of the 20th century there were many enterprises here: two alcohol factories, an iron foundry, a match factory, a brick factory, a gas factory, a chain factory, a hat factory, a chocolate factory, etc.[2] In this period horse-drawn tram, telephone and street lighting were introduced and roads were paved.

In 1892, Emperor Franz Joseph I decided to abolish the fortress status of Timișoara.[5] The demolition of the fortifications began in 1899. The main functions of the city thus became the economic ones, especially the commercial and banking ones.[6]

After World War I

On 31 October 1918, local military and political elites established the Banat National Council, together with representatives of the region's main ethnic groups: Germans, Hungarians, Serbs and Romanians. On 1 November they proclaimed the short-lived Banat Republic. In the aftermath of World War I, the Banat region was divided between the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and Timișoara came under Romanian administration after Serbian occupation between 1918 and 1919. The city was ceded from Hungary to Romania by the Treaty of Trianon on 4 June 1920. In 1920, King Ferdinand I awarded Timișoara the status of a University Centre, and the interwar years saw continuous economic and cultural development. A number of anti-fascist and anti-revisionist demonstrations also took place during this time.

During World War II, Timișoara suffered damage from both Allied and Axis bombing raids, especially during the second half of 1944. On 23 August 1944, Romania, which until then was a member of the Axis, declared war on Nazi Germany and joined the Allies. The German and Hungarian troops attempted to take the city by force throughout September, but without success.

After the war, the People's Republic of Romania was proclaimed, and Timișoara underwent Sovietisation and, later, Systematisation. The city's population tripled between 1948 and 1992. Timișoara became highly industrialised both through new investments and by increasing the capacities of the old enterprises in various industries: machine building, textile and footwear, electrical, food, plastics, optical, building materials, furniture, etc.

In December 1989, Timișoara witnessed a series of mass street protests in what was to become the Romanian Revolution. On 20 December, three days after bloodshed began there, Timișoara was declared the first city free of Communism in Romania.

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