Timișoara (German: Temeswar, Romanian: Timișoara Hallgat, Croatian: Temišvar, in the language of the Bulgarians
of Bansag: Timišvár, Serbian: Темишвар) is a city in Romania, in
Bansag. It is the seat of the former Temes County and the current
Temes County. With 319,279 inhabitants, it is the third most
populous city in Romania. It is located in the geographical center
of the Danube–Körös–Maros–Tisza Euroregion and is its most populous
city.
Thanks to the city's geographical location, it was a
place of strategic importance throughout history. Its climate is
continental, but the Mediterranean influence can also be felt.
Its first authentic written mention comes from 1266, when it
belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary. It was occupied by the Ottoman
Empire in the 16th century, and two centuries later it again became
part of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1920, the Trianon Peace Treaty
awarded the city to Romania. After the Second World War, the most
important event in Timisoara's history was the outbreak of the
Romanian revolution in 1989.
Timisoara is a multi-ethnic
city. In addition to Romanians, Hungarians, Germans, Serbs, Slovaks,
Ukrainians and, in recent years, Italians also live here. Its
population has been steadily decreasing since the 1990s. It is also
called "Little Vienna" because of its cultural and especially
architectural wealth.
Timisoara became a serious economic
center by the 18th century, and thanks to the relative development
of the economy in the 21st century, its standard of living ranks
fourth among Romanian cities.
The cityscape is significantly shaped by the more than 14,500
historic buildings, especially in the old building districts of Cetate,
Iosefin and Fabric. The buildings form an ensemble with an unmistakable
identity, but due to a decades-long renovation backlog they are in a
predominantly poor condition and in dire need of renewal. In many places
their preservation is endangered, among other things due to improper
repairs and the use of building materials that are not listed as
monuments in recent years. Their preservation and the associated
safeguarding of the architectural heritage to improve living and housing
conditions represents a central challenge for the city administration.
The technical infrastructure is largely in need of modernization due
to a lack of investment and maintenance work. The drinking water and
waste water network in particular is characterized by high line losses.
The land and real estate market is under high pressure due to
speculation by foreign investors. Refurbished apartments are rented or
sold at inflated prices to wealthy business people, previous local
apartment owners are “bought out” of their apartments and thus pushed
out of the inner-city areas. With the cost of living rising, the low
household incomes in some parts of the city are already leading to
social segregation and tensions within the population. The traffic and
parking situation has worsened significantly due to the increase in
motorized private transport and through traffic, especially in the city
center, and in some cases significantly reduces the quality of stay in
public spaces. The small-scale branch mix along the previous shopping
streets is increasingly threatened by the construction of shopping
centers outside the inner-city quarters due to the increased tying up of
purchasing power and capital.
In the Zona Circumvalațiunii in the
Mehala district and in the Zona Antena in the Fabric district, a number
of business and shopping centers have already been built, and there are
plans for larger expansions with office, commercial and residential
complexes. For example, the Fructus Tower was built in Circumvalațiunii
by 2012, at 62 meters it is one of the tallest buildings in the city. As
part of the Openville project, the Iulius Mall was remodeled with seven
high-rise office buildings, one of which is 165 meters high.
The city center is also known as "Little Vienna" because of the
city's long affiliation with Austria-Hungary and the associated
influence of buildings from the imperial era, as it is reminiscent of
old Vienna. Around 15,000 historical buildings in Schönbrunn yellow and
other pastel colors line the squares and streets of Timișoara and
cobblestone streets run through the historic old town. The fortress of
Timisoara was built in the first third of the 18th century on the
remains of an already existing Ottoman fortification with strong walls
and a total of nine bastions, of which only the Maria Theresa bastion
still exists today, along with two smaller remains of walls. The
Timișoara Philharmonic Society regularly organizes concerts in the
synagogue in the city center, which is no longer used as a house of
prayer. The numerous other sacred buildings of the various denominations
in Timișoara are also worth seeing. Fourteen bridges cross the Bega, of
which the Podul Decebal Bridge is often described as the most beautiful
of the bridges in Timisoara. The Neptun Baths, Baia Publică Neptun, are
also located on the bridge.
Piaţa Victoriei
Today's city
center on the Piața Victoriei, the city's most famous promenade,
consists of a wide boulevard with shops and street cafes in numerous
upper-class residential palaces built at the beginning of the 20th
century.
The square is located between the Romanian Orthodox
Cathedral of the Three Holy Hierarchs and the National Theater and Opera
House (seat of the German State Theater, the Hungarian State Theater
"Csik Geregely", the Teatrul National "Mihai Eminescu" and the Opera).
The statue of the Capitoline Wolf suckling Romulus and Remus placed in
the pedestrian zone was a gift from the city of Rome in 1926. The Fish
Fountain, built in 1957, is also nearby. Opposite the cathedral is a
sculpture dedicated to the victims of the December 1989 revolution,
called Crucificarea (English: Crucifixion), created by Paul Neagu.
Between the Piața Victoriei and the Piața Huniade is the Hunyadi Castle,
which has housed the Banat Museum with the history and natural history
department since 1946.
Piaţa Unirii
Also worth seeing is the
old fortress core of the city (Cetate) around the Piața Unirii (also
"Cathedral Square") with its representative churches and palaces, mostly
from the 18th and 19th centuries. In the center of this square are the
Trinity Column and an artesian well that is more than 400 m deep. The
square is surrounded by numerous monuments, such as the Timișoara
Cathedral (the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Diocese of Timișoara),
the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral with the Serbian Bishop's Palace on the
west side, which was built in the 18th century and whose baroque facade
was renovated between 1905 and 1906 Elements of Serbian architecture was
modernized, the baroque palace and the houses Brück and Emmer.
Piaţa Libertăţii
On the square is the Old Town Hall (Primăria Veche),
which was built in 1731-1734 according to the ideas of the Italian
architect Pietro del Bronzo with a mixture of Baroque and Renaissance
style elements. Here is also the seat of the music faculty of the
University of the West Timisoara.
The statue of St. Nepomuk and
Mary can be found in front of the representative building. It was
created from sandstone in 1734 by the Viennese sculptors Blim and
Wasserburger. To the left of the statue is the military casino. Opposite
the Old Town Hall is the command center of the city's military garrison.
In front of the building there are two old spruce trees planted in 1923
to commemorate the creation of Greater Romania (1921-1947). In the
eastern part of the square is the former savings bank, which was built
in 1855 by the architect Karl Mai. The square is connected to the
Societatea de Transport Public Timișoara (S.T.P.T.) tram network.
Piaţa Alexandru Mocioni
Piaţa Dr. I. C. Brătianu
Piaţa Nicolae
Bălcescu
Piaţa Plevnei
Piaţa Sfanta Maria
Piaţa Sfântu Gheorghe
Piața Timisoara 700
Piaţa Traian
Timisoara maintains numerous roses and parks. The city's green spaces
also include the 737-hectare Jagdwald (♁45° 47′ 18.6″ N, 21° 16′ 3″ E),
Romanian Pădurea Verde, which was first mentioned cartographically in
1732. From 1860 it was used as a hunting ground and has been open to the
public since 1955.
The Botanical Garden (♁45° 45′ 36″ N, 21° 13′
29″ E, Romanian: Grădina Botanică) serves as a place of recreation and
offers a variety of trees and flowers from different continents.
The
Central Park (♁45° 45′ 5″ N, 21° 13′ 13″ E, Romanian: Parcul Central)
was set up on the site of the Old City Cemetery (1749-1771) in 1870 by
the then military commander Anton Scudier. A year later, the townsfolk
donated a monument to the park founder and named the park Parcul
Scudier. During the socialist period, the park was called Parcul I.V.
Stalin. In the middle of the park is the memorial dedicated to the
Romanian soldiers who died in World War II, inaugurated in 1962. The
park is west of the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral. On August 3, 2009,
Aleea Personalităților (Avenue of Personalities) was inaugurated, with
the solemn unveiling of the busts of personalities who have rendered
services to the city.
The Cathedral Park (♁45° 45′ 0″ N, 21° 13′ 24″
E, Romanian: Parcul Catedralei) lies between the Orthodox Cathedral of
the Holy Three Hierarchs and the Bega. The park is bounded by the
Bulevardul Regele Ferdinand, the Bega Canal and the Bulevardul 16
Decembrie 1989.
East of this is the Justice Park, Romanian: Parcul
Justiției, formerly: Parcul Consiliului Popular (♁45° 44′ 58″ N, 21° 13′
37″ E), covering an area of 26,200 square meters. Originally the Palace
of Justice was to be built here; however, after plans for this were
dropped, the park retained that name. Here is the monument to the
victims of deportation to the Bărăgan Steppe, which was erected in 1996.
Between the Orthodox Cathedral and this park is the Capitol cinema and
the Banat Philharmonic on a green area called Parcul de la
Cinematographic "Capitol", ♁45° 45′ 1.7″ N, 21° 13′ 32″ E.
Opposite,
on the southern side of the Bega Canal in Elisabetin, the Alpinet Park
(Romanian: Parcul Alpinet) (♁45° 44′ 55.3″ N, 21° 13′ 23.3″) was
established in 1934 between the bridges Podul Traian and Podul Tinereții
″ O) laid out where flower exhibitions are occasionally held. The park
also bore the name Parcul Demetrovici.
South of it is in Elisabetin
the Plevnei Park, formerly Parcul Gheorghe Doja, on the Piața Plevnei
(♁45° 44′ 52″ N, 21° 13′ 15″ E).
Also further south is Carmen Sylva
Park (formerly Doina Park) (♁45° 44′ 38″ N, 21° 13′ 23″ E), which was
laid out in 1880 and covers 18,100 square meters. Smaller parks in the
eastern neighborhood are on Piața Eforie (♁45° 44′ 33″ N, 21° 13′ 46″ E)
and on Piața Crucii (♁45° 44′ 31″ N, 21° 13′ 53″ O).
The Parcul
Rozelor (♁45° 45′ 0″ N, 21° 13′ 52″ E), German Rosenpark, was created in
1891 on the northern side of the Bega Canal by Wilhelm Mühle, among
others, and is considered one of the most popular parks in the city.
There is also an open-air stage here. This park was also named Parcul
Trandafirilor, Parcul de Cultură şi Odihnă, Parcul de Cultură şi Odihnă
"Řtefan Plăvăț", and Parcul de Cultură.
North of this is the Parcul
Dr. I. C. Brătianu (♁45° 45′ 9″ N, 21° 13′ 51″ E), named after the
multiple Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu.
Timișoara City Park
(Parcul Civic) (♁45° 45′ 14″ N, 21° 13′ 53″ E) is behind the Hotel
Continental. The landmark of this complex is the so-called flower clock.
To the east follows the children's park Ion Creangă, Romanian: Parcul
Copiilor Ion Creangă (♁45° 45′ 9″ N, 21° 14′ 12″ E), which in the past
was also named Ferenz Jozsef Park, Parcul Mihai Eminescu, Parcul
Pioneerilor and Orașul Copiilor wore. This park was originally created
for the 1891 Commercial and Industrial Exposition.
Further east is
Parcul Mocioni (♁45° 45′ 26″ N, 21° 14′ 28″ E), named after one of the
founders of the Romanian Academy, Andrei Mocioni.
The Queen Maria
Park (Romanian: Parcul Regina Maria, formerly: Parcul Poporului, German
Volkspark) on the right side of the Bega in Fabric (♁45° 45′ 19″ N, 21°
14′ 33″ E) has existed since 1862 and wore since then different names
like Varosliget, Parcul Coronini, Parcul Orașului, Parcul Regina Maria,
Parcul Fabric and Parcul Tineretului. In the park is the former Apollo
cinema, built in 1909 by architect Josef Ecker jr. was erected and
structurally modified in 1955 by the architect Paul Schuster.
The
Parcul Uzine (♁45° 45′ 33″ N, 21° 15′ 42″ E, German Der Kraftwerkspark)
is located in the east of the city, on the north side of the Bega near
the Timișoara hydroelectric power station.
The most famous sports club in the city was the football club FC
Politehnica Timişoara, which played in the first Romanian league and
twice won the Cupa României national cup. He qualified for the UEFA Cup
for the first time in 1978. Home games were held in the 40,000-seat Dan
Păltinișanu Stadium. In 2001, the association moved to Bucharest and was
dissolved in 2011. From 1921 to 1927, Chinezul Timisoara won the
Romanian football championship six times in a row. With the founding of
Ripensia Timişoara in 1928, the first professional football club in
Romania was created, which won the championship five times from 1932 to
1938. The club was dissolved in 1948, it was officially re-established
in 2012 and plays in League II.
Since 2002 there has been a new
club in the city, ACS Poli Timişoara, which is currently playing in
League I. In addition to ACS Poli, ASU Politehnica Timișoara has also
been playing in the city since 2012, which was promoted to Liga II in
the 2015/16 season.
The tennis tournament ATP Challenger
Timişoara has been held annually since 2004 (except between 2009 and
2011). It is part of the ATP Challenger Tour and is held outdoors on
clay courts. Basketball has been played at the BCM Timișoara (Elba)
since 1960. The city's most famous handball club is Politehnica-Izometal
Timisoara. Other major sports include athletics, karate, badminton,
boxing, rowing, gymnastics, dance, wrestling, swimming, water polo,
rugby, chess, tennis, volleyball and target shooting. In addition to the
Bega sports complex and the Olympia sports hall, there are numerous
other sports fields.
The most important cultural centers in Timișoara include:
German
Cultural Center Timisoara
Societatea Culturală Banatul (German Banat
cultural society)
Casa de Cultură a Studenților Timișoara (German
culture house of the students Timisoara)
Casa de Cultura a
Municipiului Timisoara
Centrul de Cultură și Artă al Județului Timiș
(German culture and art center of the Timiș district
Institut
Français de Roumanie Timișoara (German French Cultural Institute
Timisoara)
National Theater and Opera House Timisoara
German State Theater
Timisoara
Hungarian State Theater "Csiky Gergely"
In the spring of 2011, representatives from culture, politics and
business founded the association Timișoara Capitală Culturală Europeană
(Temeswar European Capital of Culture). The aim of the association was
to create the conditions for Timisoara to meet the EU criteria in order
to be selected for the title of European Capital of Culture. Honorary
President of the Association is Ioan Holender. In December 2012, the
candidacy for the title of “European Capital of Culture” was officially
announced; the desired year was no longer 2020, but 2021.
The
preparations that the local authorities are making for this purpose
include the rehabilitation of the old town core. The redevelopment
project has included work on 45,000 square meters of space in the
historic city center since 2012. The construction work is currently
(2019) still ongoing.
In 2016, Timișoara was initially awarded
the contract and was to be the European Capital of Culture in 2021
together with Novi Sad / Serbia and Eleusis / Greece. However, a
postponement to 2023 was discussed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic
and the associated travel restrictions. A corresponding proposal was
approved by the EU Commission.
The following bands and singers started their careers in Timișoara:
Activ, band from the dance-pop genre
Blazzaj, band from the genre of
acid jazz
Eli, singer from the hip-hop genre
Negură Bunget, band
from the black metal genre
The :Egocentrics, band in the psychedelic
rock genre
Transylvania Phoenix, band from the rock genre
Methadone Skies, band in the stoner/psychedelic rock genre
Born in
Timișoara, Miss Platnum's songs are influenced by her childhood here.
Festivalul Inimilor, German Festival of Hearts in Parcul Rozelor, a
folklore festival held annually in July since 1979.
Timișoara Jazz
Festival, a jazz festival held annually in November in 2007, 2008, and
2009.
Festivalul Plai, since September 2006, an annual three-day
world music festival held in the Banat Village Museum
TMBase, an
annual drum and bass festival held in October since 1998 TMBase will not
take place for the first time in 2011; October 2011 planned.
Timisport, an annual short film festival held for the first time in May
2009.
International Romani Art Festival, a Romani arts festival held
annually in July since 2007.
The themes of beer (Timişoreana
Festival), wine and drama also have their own festivities and festivals.
Timisoara has a variety of restaurants, pubs, bars, clubs, jazz clubs and discos.
The name of Temesvár comes from the name of the river Temes, because in the Middle Ages some branches of the river flowed through the territory of today's city. The Romanian Timișoara comes from the Hungarian Temesvár, just like the German Temeswar and the Serbian name.
1212: Castrum Temesiensis and castrum regium Theme
1266: terra
castri de Tymes and castrenses de Tymes
1315: Timisoara
7 May
1315: Themuswar
1323: castrum nostrum (regis) de Thumuswar
1349:
Temesuar, Tömösvar, Timisoara
4 October 1440: Themeswar
1596:
Timisoara
1808: Temesvarinum, Timisoara, Temeschwar, Timisoara
1867–1918: Timisoara
1918–1919: Timișoara
Since 1919: Timisoara
The first coat of arms of the city was the first known coat of arms
of the Kingdom of Hungary, which was granted in 1365 by King Louis I of
Hungary. It has changed several times over time, and today is a mixture
of versions.
Description of the coat of arms:
“Cut shield; in
the upper, incised field, the first quarter on a red base above blue
waves, on a silver bridge with two arches, a golden lion advancing
right; in the second quarter, a silver castle wall on a blue background,
with a huge cone-shaped tower, two round, black windows, a red roof and
an open gate with a black well wheel; a red, silver cross flag hangs
from the gables of the tower to the right, and a Romanian tricolor with
a hole in its yellow band to the left.
In the lower part of the coat
of arms, on a blue background, an irregularly bordered silver city with
red house and tower roofs, in a green grassy field, with a silver,
banded river flowing to the right, above which is a sun with golden rays
and a human face on the right, and a silver waning moon on the left, all
drawn in perspective.
Above the shield is a seven-pointed silver wall
crown."
The lion and the bridge were taken from the coat of arms of Oltenia,
symbolizing the city's ties to Romania.
The flag tower symbolizes
that this city was the first in Europe to have a centralized drinking
water supply; the tricolor with holes refers to the Romanian revolution
of 1989.
The outline of the city revives the old castle of Timisoara.
The seven-bay crown wall indicates that Timisoara is a town with county
rights.
Timisoara is located in the south-eastern part of the Carpathian basin, in Bánság, next to the Béga and Temes rivers. Until the 18th century, these two rivers surrounded the territory of the historic city with marshes. The city was well defendable, but epidemics and infections spread easily. Because of this, the city did not develop. In the 18th century, the marshes were drained by regulating the rivers. Among other things, they dug a new bed for the Temes river and created the Béga canal. The drained areas made construction possible. It is located in a geologically active area, since several earthquakes have been recorded in the chronicles over the centuries. The most recent earthquake was measured on January 8, 2012, with a magnitude of 3.1 on the Richter scale.
The climate of Timișoara is temperate-continental, characterized by
cold winters and warm summers. In summer, the temperature is above 20
°C, in winter it can even drop below freezing. Thanks to its
geographical location, however, it also has a Mediterranean influence.
In spring and summer, significant precipitation arrives from the
Atlantic Ocean, often even in winter. However, due to the Mediterranean
influence coming from the Adriatic Sea, even if it snows, it melts
quickly, and this is also the cause of the summer heat. The annual
rainfall is the same as the national average.
From 553, the Avars ruled the area of present-day Timișoara for two
hundred years and established a new settlement called Beguey on the
ruins of the former Roman fortifications of Zambara, strategically
located between the Beghei Bega (Tisza) and Timisoara rivers. After the
Avars, the Pechenegs moved to the Banat. Cumans, Bulgarians and Vlachs
were also settled here, followed by the Magyars at the end of the
millennium. It is believed that the Temeschburg Fortress was built in
Avar architecture as early as the 10th century and was surrounded by
moats on the site of today's National Theater and Opera House in
Timisoara.
Temeschburg was first mentioned in a document in 1154
by the Arab geographer al-Idrisi. After the destruction by the Tatars in
1241, the Hungarian king Béla IV called German settlers into the
depopulated country, who rebuilt the city. Under Charles Robert I, who
ascended the Hungarian throne in 1311, Temesvár was already a populous
and fortified city. He made the place his residence and ruled the
Hungarian Empire from here for a few years between 1316 and 1323.
Destroyed again by an earthquake in 1443, Timisoara was conquered by the
Ottomans in 1552 and remained part of the Ottoman Empire for 164 years.
After the Venetian-Austrian Turkish War and the conquest of the
Banat by Habsburg Austria in 1716, the city was expanded into a fortress
and garrison city (see also Haus zum Prinz-Eugen-Tor) and remained under
Austrian and later Austrian rule for the next two centuries -Hungarian
rule. In its history, Temesvár was hit by several plague and cholera
epidemics and was besieged several times in wars, e.g. by the Turks and
during the Revolution of 1848. In the 1750s the town was a target of
exiles of the Timișoara water thrust. From 1849 to 1860, Timisoara was
the capital of the Crown Land of the Serbian Voivodeship and Temescher
Banat.
In the second half of the 19th century, Timișoara (which
was in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary from 1867 and was therefore
officially called with its Hungarian form of name) came to economic and
cultural prosperity, including the connection to the railway network
(1857) and the canalization of the Bega made significant contributions.
Another major innovation was the horse-drawn tram that opened in 1869;
after Budapest, it was the second tram in the area of Old Hungary, the
first in today's Romania and one of the first in the world. From
November 12, 1884, the city was one of the first cities in Europe to
have electric street lighting, after Paris, Nuremberg, Steyr and Berlin.
Timișoara was spared combat operations during World War I, but was
then the target of the conflicts between the Kingdom of Serbia and
Romania, to which the Triple Entente had contractually guaranteed the
entire Banat. On November 14, 1918, Serbian troops occupied the city; on
August 3, 1919 Romanian troops moved in while the Serbian units withdrew
to their territory.
The division of the Banat was sealed on June
4, 1920 in the Trianon Peace Treaty, in which the city was awarded to
Romania. As a result, Timişoara lost part of its surroundings and the
governmental and infrastructural ties to Central Europe. This change,
together with the economic crises of the interwar period, led to
economic stagnation, from which Timisoara was only able to recover in
the late 1920s and late 1930s.
During the Second World War, among
other things, the Gara Timișoara Nord station and the railway facilities
were destroyed by an Allied bombing raid. After Romania changed sides,
Higher SS and Police Leader Hermann Behrends advanced from Vršac to
Timisoara in Operation Behrends, which lasted from September 11 to 30,
1944, with the poorly equipped 4th SS Police Panzergrenadier Division.
His job was to find out how far the Romanian Banat was occupied by the
Soviets. The "Kampfgruppe Behrends" consisted mainly of Waffen-SS
vacationers and men from the Banat disposal troops from the German team.
A "Michel Reiser disposal force" consisted of ten companies of 120 - 150
men each, made up of parts of the city's "German team", older students
and the labor service class. The leader of the ethnic groups, Josef
Janko, had this protection force set up to protect the withdrawing
population from partisan attacks behind the front. The combat group
started on September 13, 1944 from Srpska Crnja (Serbian-Zerne) in the
North Banat their train to Timisoara and arrived on September 20, 1944
to the suburbs. Behrends then reported to Himmler that Timisoara had
been conquered and was immediately awarded the Knight's Cross of the
Iron Cross. However, the combat group was pushed out of the city by the
Romanian and Soviet troops with losses and withdrew to the Yugoslav
Banat. Furthermore, it came on 30./31. October 1944 to bombing by German
air forces.
From January 15, 1945 to the end of 1949, the ethnic German
population was the target of deportation of those able to work and of
expropriations. After communist rule had consolidated in 1948, the
entire industry and large parts of the service sector were nationalized.
The handicraft and service sectors were combined into cooperatives in
the following decade, completely transforming the economic ownership
structure in Timișoara.
After the Hungarian uprising at the end
of October 1956, Romanian, Hungarian, German and other students also
took to the streets in the student uprising in Timișoara. At first their
concern was the bad canteen food and the overcrowded dormitories, but at
the spontaneous gathering of around 3,000 students the plight of the
farmers, the exploitation of Romanian raw materials by the Soviet Union
and similar misfortunes were also addressed. After many students were
arrested at the demonstration, there was no support from workers.
From the 1960s there was a change in the industry structure.
Consumer and light industry was increasingly neglected, while the heavy
and production goods industry, which was preferred for ideological
reasons, was expanded and built up; for example from 1960 in the heavy
machinery combine U.M.T., which had specialized in mining equipment and
hoists. The rapidly advancing industrialization was reflected in
industrial platforms, such as those that arose in the south-east of the
city with the chemical works and factories for the manufacture of
construction machinery. Companies in the building materials and energy
industries settled in the south, those in the food industry in the
south-west and those in the mechanical engineering industry in the
north-east. The largest companies were I.A.T., Electrotimiș, C.P.
Solventul, Optica, I.A.E.M., Electromotor, Electrobanat, Banatul or
I.R.A. A lack of modernization and maintenance, as well as a lack of raw
materials, an unstable energy supply situation and unrealistic
production plans made life difficult for the workers. Timișoara, along
with the rest of Romania, experienced dramatic economic and social
depletion in the 1980s. In the city with one of the first electric
street lights in Europe, 100 years after its introduction, no lamps were
left on at night.
The Romanian revolution against the communist dictatorship of Nicolae
Ceausescu originated in Timișoara. The trigger was the resistance of the
reformed Hungarian community in Elisabethstadt against the forced
transfer of their pastor László Tőkés, against whom a guard was kept on
December 14, 1989.
On December 15, 1989, numerous demonstrations
and riots took place. A massacre then ensued in Opera Square, when the
army and Securitate fired on demonstrators, including children, who were
the first victims of the revolution to lose their lives. The exact
number of victims has not yet been clarified and leaves many questions
unanswered. It is assumed that 153 people died in Timisoara. The
revolutionary events in Timișoara spread across the country, eventually
leading to Ceaușescu being the only head of state to be violently
overthrown as part of the 1989 revolutions. Immediately after a show
trial, he and his wife Elena were summarily shot on December 25, 1989.
The Timișoara Proclamation, in which the Timișoara insurgents set
out their political goals on March 11, 1990, can be seen as the first
document establishing a democratic Romania.
After overcoming the
lethargy of the 1980s and a relatively short transformation
depression[29], the economic and social sectors recovered quickly. Since
1996, an increasing upward trend has been noticeable and also visible in
the cityscape, as the city has proven to be particularly attractive for
international direct investments from German-speaking and Italian
countries.
In German usage, the terms Temeswar, Temeschwar and Temeschburg are
known. Timisoara is mentioned many times in documents from the 14th and
15th centuries, for the first time in 1396 on the occasion of the Battle
of Nicopolis involving King Sigmund against the Turks.
After the
Peace of Passarowitz in 1718, the Temescher Banat received a special
status as a crown and chamber domain of the Habsburg monarchy, which
adopted the existing geographical designations of the local nobles and
named its capital Timisoara. There is no evidence of the use of the name
Temeschburg in the Banat from the Habsburg period. However,
encyclopedias published in Leipzig from 1732 and from the 1740s gave
Temeschburg as the valid German name of the city. The name Temeschwar
was developed in the Habsburg era based on the pronunciation of the
Hungarian Temesvár and was mainly used in Austria, but is now considered
obsolete.
In the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, Timisoara
was usually written with a "w" in German texts. This changed in the
course of Magyarization, especially with the "Decree of the Place Names
Act of February 5, 1898" by the Budapest Ministry of the Interior,
according to which the city had to be written with a "v" from then on.
The Temesvarer Zeitung, founded in 1852, already spelled itself with a
"v", although German was the official language in the Banat at the time.
Vár means “castle” or “fortress” in Hungarian.
In the interwar
period, German national circles tried to give more weight to the name
variant Temeschburg. With the strengthening of the National Socialist
"renewers" in the Kingdom of Romania towards the end of the 1930s, which
culminated from 1940 to 1944 in the sole, synchronized representation of
the Romanian Germans by the "German People's Community in Romania", this
term became the official German language of the time through. In the
post-war period, the name retained its National Socialist resonance in
the German-speaking diaspora and was frowned upon. Although Temeschburg
was one of the official variants in Germany for a long time (the name
was often used when naming the place of birth in West German ID cards),
Temesvar was the applicable standard in public Romanian-German usage
from 1948 at the latest.
In 1972, all forms of names in the
languages of the minorities of the Socialist Republic of Romania that
were not the direct equivalents of the Romanian language were banned.
Local German-language media, including the Neue Banater Zeitung, adopted
the spelling Timisoara.
Today, the name Timisoara has become
established in the public Romanian-German language.
In January 2009 Timișoara had 311,586 inhabitants with a population
density of 2388 per km². The city is predominantly inhabited by
Romanians (85.52 percent). There are also many Magyars (7.5 percent),
Germans (2.25 percent), Serbs (1.98 percent), Roma (0.96 percent), Swiss
(0.5 percent) and Italians (0.4 percent). ) in the city. According to an
estimate by the German consulate in Timisoara, around 10,000 Germans
live in the city and the surrounding area.
Around 20 percent of
the population is under 20 years old, 4.0 percent is over 70 years old.
As for denominations, 79 percent belong to the Romanian Orthodox
Church and 12.4 percent belong to the Roman Catholic Church. According
to the 2002 census, Judaism in Timișoara has shrunk to just 367 people.
The city has been shaped by the peaceful coexistence of different
nationalities for centuries. The ethnic composition of the city's
population changed frequently due to changing nationalities, and
Magyarization also played a role here. In the second half of the 19th
century there was still a German and Hungarian majority and a very high
Serb population. In 1910 the proportion of the Romanian population was
less than ten percent. Until about 1944, the Germans formed the largest
population group.
In the post-war period, the city's population
grew with industry, mainly due to the influx of Romanians from eastern
and southern Romania. In contrast, in the last phase of the communist
regime, immigration from the surrounding area was forbidden, which de
facto amounted to a ban on minorities immigrating. This fundamentally
changed the ethnic structure. In addition, the number of Germans shrank
as a result of the resettlement that has been going on since the 1970s.
Since the mid-1990s, the population has been falling steadily due to
a drop in birth rates and the emigration of well-trained young
professionals, particularly from the technical and IT sectors, as well
as slowly beginning suburbanization in the surrounding communities.
In addition to Bucharest, the phenomenon of street children in
Romania mainly occurred in Timișoara. In the 1990s and 2000s, several
groups of up to 100 children between the ages of six and 17 lived in the
city's sewage system in winter. The newspaper The Independent called
them the rat children in 1994. In 1997 the number of children was given
as up to 200. A survey found that over 80 percent of the children were
boys, 50 percent were between 10 and 14 years old, and over 40 percent
were not native to Timisoara. 65 percent of children living on the
streets during the day returned to their families at night. In 2001
there were still between 200 and 250 street children in Timișoara, about
half of whom could be accommodated in night shelters or other
institutions.
A study by the drug advice center at Piața
Libertății from 2009 shows that 8.3 percent of the 866 schoolchildren
and students surveyed have taken illegal drugs at least once in their
lives. The classification of drugs and the penalties for their
possession are harsh for hashish or marijuana and very harsh for cocaine
and heroin. Of the 866 people surveyed from the district of Timisoara,
6.4 percent said they had consumed marijuana, 0.9 percent cocaine and
0.6 percent heroin. Timisoara does not offer a methadone program. The
vast majority of respondents had experience with legal drugs such as
alcohol and tobacco. Ethnobotanical drugs are freely available, but
their ban is currently under discussion.
Sniffing "Aurolac"
(VOC-containing organic solvent of various compositions) from plastic
bags is common among street children.
As in all of Romania, there
is also a high potential for organized crime in Timișoara for
prostitution and human trafficking, the city is the starting point for
the so-called western route (via Hungary or the countries of former
Yugoslavia) to western Europe.
The black market in untaxed
cigarettes is thriving in the markets of Timișoara, including Piața
Timișoara 700 and the Josefstädter Markt. Crime has become a problem
after the upheaval, according to the Timișoara Detention Center. The
prisons are often too small for the number of prisoners. One of the most
important problems remains the reintegration of inmates after the end of
their sentence.
Local elections
See also: List of Timișoara mayors
In the
municipal elections on June 5, 2016, Nicolae Robu of the Partidul
National Liberal was confirmed in the mayoralty with 52.67 percent of
the vote. In September 2020 he was defeated by the German Dominic Fritz
from the Uniunea Salvați România.
Extreme political groups
Chairman of the Noua Dreapta (ND, German New Rights) of the Banat
district is Goran Mrakici, the editor of a Serbian local newspaper and
leader of the fans of the football club Poli Timisoara. The Noua Dreapta
is considered the most militant political group in the country.
metropolitan zone
With the Zona metropolitană (German Metropolis
Zone) project of the city administration, the number of inhabitants of
the city is to increase to 700,000 by 2020 by expanding the city limits
to the neighboring towns, taking into account the infrastructure and the
socio-cultural, sporting and medical aspects. The background to these
efforts is a better development of the labor force potential in the
rural population, as well as obtaining grants from EU funding programs,
with larger communities being preferred. The implementation of the plans
has met resistance from some mayors of the surrounding towns, who fear
that the local governments will be dissolved, as well as from parts of
the rural population, who currently pay lower taxes there.
In socialist times, the region was characterized by food processing,
textile and leather industries. In the 1990s, the economic structure of
the city changed, with new growth sectors such as the electrical and
construction machinery industry, automotive suppliers and the IT sector.
Timisoara is one of the country's development centers and the economy
here has been booming since 2004.
Unemployment in Timiș County is
4.6 percent, below the national average of 8.3 percent. (Status February
2010) It is becoming increasingly difficult to find suitable staff. At
the same time, wage levels are rising rapidly.
A tax reform by
the Romanian government also contributed to the boom of the first decade
of the 21st century, which introduced a flat tax of 16 percent and
so-called micro-companies (up to 100,000 euros annual turnover) with an
optional 3 percent of the turnover or 16 percent of the taxed on
profits. Due to the effects of the financial crisis from 2007,
Timișoara, like the whole of Romania, has seen a decline in economic
growth.
The list of German direct investors includes the
automotive industry suppliers Continental, VDO Automotive, Dräxlmaier
and Kromberg & Schubert, who produce locally. Linde manufactures
technical gases. The Honold Logistics Group operates one of the largest
logistics centers in Romania near Timișoara. The Swiss companies Nestlé
and ABB are represented with production facilities. Heraeus Dental, a
subsidiary of the Japanese company Mitsui, has also settled in Săcălaz
near Timișoara.
US companies such as Coca-Cola, Delphi, Procter &
Gamble and Solectron are also based here, as is Smithfield Foods, the
world's largest pig breeding and pork processing company. Other
international companies such as Flextronics and Philips have also set up
production facilities here.
In 2012, Microsoft opened a support
office in Timisoara, the second of its kind in Romania after Bucharest.
The Technical Support Center in Timișoara offers its services for
Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Around 35 banks are located
in Timisoara.
The Bega Shopping Center (Magazinul Bega in
Romanian) is located in the city center with five sales floors, right
next to the city's most famous hotel, the Hotel Continental. With 8,600
m², the department store was one of the first large shopping centers in
Timișoara and has been renovated several times since it was built. Since
2005, Iulius Mall, located in the north of the city, has been the
largest shopping center in western Romania, covering an area of 66,500
m² with 330 shops on three floors and a 7-screen Cinema City cinema with
951 seats.
There were six hotels in the city in 1989, 28 in 2004,
and 49 in 2009. The range of hotels in the city today ranges from
backpacker accommodation to star hotels. Worth mentioning is the Hotel
Timișoara with its listed building.
Timişoara is located on the DN6 trunk road, which runs north-west to
the Makó-Cenad border crossing with Hungary, about 80 kilometers away.
Arad in the north can be reached via the European route E76. The E70
takes you to both Lugoj in the east and Vršac in Serbia in the south.
The DN59A leads to Jimbolia to the west.
The street network of
the inner city is based on the course of the former fortress walls.
After the softening, the inner city was connected to Josefstadt and
Fabrikstadt in 1989 by main roads up to 40 meters wide, such as today's
Bulevard Tinereții and Bulevard Revoluției. The dense, straight-angled
street network in the city center was surrounded by a ring road based on
the Viennese model. The city center itself has now largely been
converted into a pedestrian zone. Even before 1989, the ring around the
city center was relocated further outwards instead of via the Piata
Operei, so that the Piata Victorei could be designed as a wide
pedestrian promenade. Exits to pedestrian tunnels date from before and
have not yet been dismantled.
Local public transport is the responsibility of the public limited company Societatea de Transport Public Timișoara (S.T.P.T.). It operates the Timişoara tram, the Timişoara trolleybus and various bus lines. The bus station is at Gara de Est (East Train Station), about three kilometers from the North Train Station. The most important European long-distance bus lines serve Timișoara several times a day. The bus station for national travel is at Gara de Nord (North Railway Station).
Timișoara is also a rail hub and is connected to one of the largest European railway networks by the state railway company Căile Ferate Române. From Gara Timișoara Nord numerous destinations in Germany and abroad can be reached by train. In addition to this station, there are also the stations Timişoara Est in the district of Fabric, Timişoara Sud in the district of Fratelia and Timişoara Vest in the district of Freidorf. At the southern city limits there is also the stop Timișoara C.E.T. at the power plant of the same name. The large marshalling yard Ronaț Triaj is already outside the city area on the railway line to Arad.
Timișoara International Airport, named after Romanian aviation
pioneer Traian Vuia, is to the east of the city. The city is connected
to a number of European airports, including through the airlines
Carpatair and Wizz Air, Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines. In the medium
term it is planned to connect the airport to the railway network. With
the support of the municipal polytechnic and the Stuttgart Fraunhofer
Institute (IPA), the mayor's office has already developed a broad
infrastructure project called "Vision Timisoara 2030", which envisages
connecting the airport to the regional railway network. The project aims
to divert freight traffic away from the nearby city as much as possible.
The smaller private airfield Cioca is located west of the city.
Timisoara was a port on the Bega until the 1950s. In 1958 Romania
stopped shipping traffic with neighboring countries on the Bega Canal.
The canal, which has been completely closed since 1967, was desludged
and expanded over a period of two years and has been partially navigable
again since 2011. To relieve traffic in the city, four vaporettos with
nine stops are planned, which will commute between the waterworks and
the Heuplatz (Badea Cârțan).
A completion date for the work on
handling freight traffic is not known at this time. The total investment
for the measures is 22 million euros. When the work is complete, it will
connect Timișoara to the port on Pan-European Corridor VII and to other
ports from the North Sea to the Black Sea.
newspapers
Cotidianul Timisoara
Focus Vest
Fotbal Vest
Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung for Romania, in German
Timpolis
Ziua
de Vest
Heti Uj Szo
radio
Kiss FM Timisoara (FM 99.0 MHz),
Top 40
Per Fm Timișoara (FM 97.4 MHz), Music
Radio Guerrilla
Timisoara (FM 96.9 MHz), music
Radio Timișoara (AM 630 kHz),
multilingual broadcasts, news, music
Radio Timișoara (FM 105.9 MHz),
news, music, multilingual broadcasts
West City Radio (FM 88.8MHz),
News, Music
TV
Alfa Omega CreștinTV, in Romanian with
Christian themes
Analog TV Timisoara
Tele Europa Nova Timisoara
TVR Timisoara
From 1968 to 1993 the German-language Neue Banater
Zeitung was published in Timisoara. It will be continued as a supplement
to the "Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung für Rumania".
The city hall (Romanian: Primǎria Municipiului Timișoara) is located
on Bulevardul C.D. Loga, no. 1. The building was built in Romanian style
between 1924 and 1929 on the site of the former commercial high school.
The Timisoara architect László Székely designed the plans for the town
hall. It has been the seat of the city administration since 1946.
The district administration (Romanian: Consiliul Județean Timiș) is
located on Bulevardul Revolutiei din 1989, No.17. The building also
houses the Prefecture of Timiș County (Romanian: Prefectura Județeană
Timiș). The Prefectural Palace was built between 1933 and 1940 by the
architect Mathias Hubert and later by Victor Vlad as a mixture between
modern and classical architectural style. Today it is the seat of the
Prefecture and the District Council.
The seat of the Court of
Justice for the Timiș district is the Dicasterial Palace. Built between
1850 and 1854 as the government building of Serbian Vojvodina and
Timisoara Banat, the palace covers a large area and stretches across 3
streets. The building has 3 floors. With three courtyards and over 350
rooms, it is the city's largest public building.
The Post Palace
is located on Bulevardul Revoluției din 1989.