OMG- Timisoara, Romania!

Has anyone reading this ever heard of Timisoara, Romania? I’m willing to bet not. Though, who knows, maybe someone will surprise me…

I know I’d never heard of Timisoara. Not even when I was researching in advance for my travels through Romania. Many beautiful-looking towns and cities came up during my research, but not Timisoara.

Later, during my travels through Eastern Europe, none of the Romanians I met ever recommended Timisoara as a place to visit. Nor did any other travelers who’d already explored Romania ever mention it to me.

I ended up in Timisoara completely by luck. Since I’d changed my original travel route by going to Poland in September for a family reunion, I ended up heading into Romania ‘backwards’ (from my original plans) from Budapest, Hungary, heading eastward into Romania.

While in Budapest I began searching for Romanian cities or towns near the border of Hungary so that I wuldn’t have too long a trip from Budapest. I also didn’t want to miss any great places between the border and Bucharest while traveling around Romania. I’d already seen from photos how beautiful Romania is.

I first checked out the Romanian cities of Arad and Cluj-Napoca, two cities highly recommended by a Romanian girl I met in Bratslava, Slovakia. Both cities looked beautiful from online photos, with tons of stunning historic architecture. However, both looked so very similar to the cities & architecture I’d been gazing at for more than one month in Krakow, Bratislava and Budapest.

Looking for other cities near the border, I saw Timisoara on the map. When I pulled up pictures of the city, this stunning church popped up. Wow!

I knew immediately that’s where I wanted to go. I had never seen that type of architecture before. And Timisoara looked like a much smaller city, which would be a welcome change after the rather tiring, monster-size cities of Krakow and Budapest.

I did not have an easy time trying to make plans for Timisoara, however. I had trouble finding reasonably-priced accommodation in the city center as well as transportation between Budapest and Timisoara that ran during reasonable hours.

I eventually started thinking I might have to actually skip Timisoara and go elsewhere. But finally, at the last minute (I mean late the night before my departure from Budapest) everything fell into place. I found an inexpensive train departing at 7 am, then a gorgeously-designed boutique hostel with a female dorm, located right in central Timsoara. I was going!

I was triple-y excited heading to Romania that day. First of all, I was super excited to be finally heading to Romania. Of all the countries I’d planned on exploring this year, Romania was at the top of my list, based on all the gorgeous photos I’d seen online of mountain, castles, historic towns and other interesting places.

Secondly, I was equally excited to visit Timisoara. To make matters even sweeter, I was thrilled to be going by train. Amazingly, the 5.5-hour journey cost me only 15 Euro / $17 US. Up until then, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to take a train in Europe since all my friends told me how expensive the ttains are. Apparently those expensive trains are in Western Europe.

All I knew about Timisoara before my arrival was that it had that gorgeous church of mysterious architectural style and that the city otherwise was filled with more beautiful historic buildings.

Not surprsingly, on my very first day in town I visited that interesting church that had lured me to Timisoara. Biserica Sfanta Ecatarnia. St Catherine Basilica. It was even more gorgeous in person!

I learned from the informative church plaque that it was of Moldavian architectural style, which is a mix of Byzantine and Gothic. I just love the exterior form, color scheme and construction materials. The yellow & red brick hark back to Byzantine church designs Id seen in Macedonia, while the multiple towers exemplify Gothic cathedrals.

The church interiors are even more stunning, showcasing that elaborate Orthodox style where every single space on walls, ceilings, domes, pillars and floors are filled with ornate designs and paintings.

Wandering around town, I quickly discovered the lovely Bega Canal, lined by miles and miles of walking/cycling paths through beautiful shady parks filled with huge, gorgeous trees.

I also found a surprisingly huge number of parks in Timisoara. I’d estimate they take up about 1/4-1/3 of the total town area!

Later, stumbling upon the city’s largest plaza, I was suddenly stuck on the spot with my jaw a-gape, staring in near disbelief at all the incredibly gorgeous buildings surrounding the huge open plaza.

There’s a large mustard-yellow Catholic church, a dainty super-cute blue and white church, the massive golden Baroque Palace (now a museum) and other assorted historic buildings in lavendar, red, pale green, light blue, peach and beige.

I discovered Timisoara’s other, smaller plazas as well. But none compare in grandeur to the main plaza.

Learning about Timisoara’s history, I found out that it used to be an exceptionally important city during the great Hapsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Bega Canal was created to connect Timisoara up with the great Danube River, which means that Timisoara was connected to Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna. Timisoara’s fabric factories and other merchandise could be easily shipped westward, while goods from western Europe could be sent to Timisoara.

Timisoara also became one of the Hapsburg Empire’s most important fortified cities, defending the empire against invaders, particularly the Ottoman Turks who liked to raid from the south. Timisoara was surrounded by not one, but three, complete walls with turrets and a rather elaborate moat and maze-like entryways into the city center. It was the most southeastern fortification in the empire.

Once it got connected to Vienna and Budapest, Timisoara also became a huge cultural center, particularly for classical European music. And it remains so today. There’s opera, philharmonic orchestras, quartets & quintets, plays, organ concerts in churches and street concerts & musicians roaving around the city.

While I was there, I attended a Philharmonic concert one night (for a whopping 20 Lei / $4.50 US) and a free organ concert by a famous organ maestro in a massive cathedral another night.

Out on the plazas, I watched a street busker dressed in full Mexican Mariachi costume singing romantic ballads in Spanish, a scruffy-looking little man playing phenomanal piano pieces on a full but peeling grand piano, a shy long-haired young student playing heavy rock and various other assorted musicians out seranading the crowds.

Timisoara also lays claim to many important ‘first’ technological, medical and educational developments. Most amazingly, perhaps, in 1884 Timisoara became the very first city in all of Europe to have electric lighting in the streets! Not London or Paris. Not Vienna or Budpest or Berlin. Timisoara. And it was second in the entire world only to New York City!

I find it quite astounding that this little Romanian city that almost nobody outside of Romania has ever heard of was, in fact, such an incredibly important city in the history of Europe. Who knew?!

Timisoara boats plenty of other important ‘firsts’. Back in the early 1700s, the region’s first industrial center was in Timisoara. Timisoara had the first navigable canal, the first brewery, the first lending library, the first Johanne Straus concert and the first telephone network in Romania, to name just a few. The city also had the third permanent theatrical staging of all cities in the Hapsburg Empire.

Today, Timisoara also seems to be a big center for design and creativity, in general – graphic design, interior design and art. There seem to be a lot of creative, designer types in the city and many interesting, ecclectic little bars & cafes.

I was completely taken by wonderful little Timisoara, Romania. It’s the kind of place I would consider living in one day when I finally complete my world travels.

I’ll be traveling around Romania for another month or more. I’ll be writing about all the beautiful towns, castles and nature I discover along the way. So stay tuned for more on amazing Romania!

In the meantime, you might also like:

Introduction to Krakow, Poland

My First Impressions of Bulgaria

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