In 1716, Eugene of Savoy liberates the city. Not much would change in the city the over the course of the Ottoman occupation. Ottoman and Austrian Era’sĪfter massacring much of the Timisoara’s christian population, the Ottomans made the city their state capital, bestowing it with a special status. The city was besieged several times by the Ottoman army, 1462, 1476, 14 before finally succumbing in 1552 to an army boasting numbers over 16 000 strong. Hungarian/Romanian national hero John Hunyadi built a powerful fortress here so that raids into the advancing Ottoman armies could be conducted from the Banat. It was the capital of Hungary until 1323.Īs the Ottomans advanced into the Balkans, the city became an important rallying point for the Hungarian resistance. The city would recover and in 1315 Charles I of Hungary would set up his royal residence here after some conflicts with other Hungarian nobles. Like most of Hungary, the city is built on plains an was an easy target for the horse-backed warriors.
This settlement was completely razed by the Tatars (Mongols) in 1241. This was the land of the Hungarians, a people who had migrated to the Carpathian basin from central Asia. Dicasterial Palace Medieval Agesĭuring the course of the the 10th century a prosperous medieval settlement began to develop. The former Dacian territory was subdued by Rome in 106A.D and a castrum (fortified camp) called Temesiensis was built where the city stands today. The area surrounding Timisoara has been occupied since the stone age. A view of the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral. The name Timisoara derives from the Hungarian name for the city Temesvár, where “vár” refers to a castle on the river Timiș (Temes). The rise of Nationalism in the 20th century along with the establishment of often ethnically inclined communist dictatorships has done much to change the demographic equation.
The Banat has historically been one of the most multicultural regions of Europe, this being true while it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Romanian Banat is flat, surrounded by arable farmland and gentle rivers. The city is located in the Banat, a historical region of Hungary, today split between Hungary, Romania and Serbia. This was a city that was practically begging for me to discover it. I was invigorated to discover that Eugene had daringly entered the gates to Timisoara with great fanfare and, after liberating the town, established a brewery here. At Sarajevo, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Budapest and Vienna I learned of a dashing military officer named Eugene of Savoy, a friend and partner in war of the great British general John Churchill, who drove the Turks from most of the Balkans. Learning about the ethnic makeup of the town and the history of it, I wondered what was exactly it was about this small student city that projected it onto the international stage.Īs I got older, I visited the Balkans and Timisoara appeared to me once again, like a mirage. The revolution that brought him down started in this city, in large part due to the protests of a Hungarian priest. My interest in Timisoara, the westernmost city of Romania, was first peaked while I was watching a documentary on the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the brutal communist dictator of Romania.
0 kommentar(er)
