Timișoara Fortress
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Timișoara Fortress (Latin: Castrum Temesiensis, Castrum Temesvariensis, Hungarian: Temesvári vár, Turkish: Temeşvar Kalesi, German: Festung Temeswar, Romanian: Cetatea Timișoara) is a historical fortress in western Romania around which the town of Timișoara was built.
Timișoara Fortress | |
---|---|
Cetatea Timișoara | |
Timișoara in Romania | |
Coordinates | 45.756°N 21.228°E / 45.756; 21.228 |
Type | Medieval fortification (1308–1732)[1] Bastion fort (after 1732)[1] |
Area | 0.3 km2 (intra muros) 8 km2 (non-aedificandi) |
Site history | |
Built | 1308 (1308) (medieval) 1732 (1732) (bastion fort) |
In use | 1315 (1315) (medieval) 1765 (1765) (bastion fort) |
Materials | Clay, wood, stone, brick |
Fate | Demolished, 1892 |
Battles/wars | Siege of Temesvár (1514) Siege of Temesvár (1551) Siege of Temesvár (1552) Siege of Temeşvar (1596) Siege of Temeşvar (1689) Siege of Temeşvar (1696) Siege of Temeşvar (1716) Siege of Temesvár (1849) |
Garrison information | |
Past commanders | István Losonci (1552) Juraj Rukavina Vidovgradski (1849) |
It is presumed that there was an earlier earthworks fortification built by the Avars, but the first written record is from the 13th century. At the beginning of the 14th century Charles I of Hungary built the first stone fortification, the Angevin fortress. In 1443 John Hunyadi restored the castle and the surrounding walls, which had been destroyed by an earthquake. The fortress was captured in 1552 by the Ottoman Turks, who held it till 1716 when it was taken by the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs reconstructed it, making it much bigger in the style of Blaise Francois Pagan, a precursor of the Vauban system. The Habsburg fortress was besieged only once, during the Hungarian Revolution in 1849.
The increased effectiveness of artillery with explosive shells at the end of the 19th century rendered the walls ineffective. As the walls and the area around them (the non-aedificandi area) hindered the development of the town, the walls were demolished and the ditches were filled in.
At the beginning of the 21st century the only remains of the Habsburg fortress are the Huniade Castle, one bastion – the Theresia Bastion, an important tourist attraction – a casemate of the ravelin of the Vienna Gate, a portion of the Eugeniu bastion and a small part of the curtain wall between the Eugeniu and Elisabetha bastions. All these vestiges form the historic monument "Timișoara Fortress".