TIMISOARA

Timisoara is situated in the South-Western part of Romania, very close to the border with the former Yugoslavia. Timişoara is the city with the most western and cosmopolitan looks of the whole country, and the place where, in 1989, the first bursts of revolution led to the removal of the national communist regime. Testimonies of those events can still be seen today, most notably the bullet marks on the walls of the buildings in the Union Square.
The administrative and cultural center of Banat, Timişoara is a friendly and lively city. During the summers, the city center is full of terraces that show up on small and shadowy streets, and in the bright squares troubled only by the pigeons’ cooing. In the evening, the banks of the Bega river, which crosses the city, animate lovers’ romantic gatherings in little boats whose lights playfully reflect into the water’s waves. Music vibrates in the night around the terraces. In winter, the city’s nightlife moves towards a great variety of clubs and bars, where every weekend visitors can take in jazz and rock concerts, house music, and mixes of people.
The town, more than 1 millennium old, has excellently preserved its city looks; a walk will lead you to the numerous edifices in Baroque style. Among the most remarkable, due to its age and aspect, is the Old City Hall, smart houses from the beginning of the 19th century, older and more recent churches and cathedrals belonging to the different ethnic groups in town, the Castle of the Huniazi, the famous bulwark, and theaters.
A former town of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, nicknamed “The Small Vienna”, Timişoara has been in fashion with Western habits for a long time, it even was the first city in Europe to take advantage of the street-lights (starting with 1884). Obeying its legacy, today Timişoara has a very intense cultural life. At The National Theater –the only theater in Europe where the shows are performed in 3 different languages: Romanian, Hungarian and German – housed in a building of Renaissance style, numerous shows take place, including international theater festivals. It is not said for nothing that “Banat is Romania’s forehead!”