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!”

An amazing city

An unusual mixture of Oriental nuance and Western refinement, Bucharest harmoniously mingles its many contrasts: crowded streets and terraces full of life, cavernous international restaurants and intimate cafes, office buildings of steel and glass beside romantic districts of old houses.

Since 1862, when it became Romania’s capital, Bucharest has undergone perpetual change, turning into the center of artistic and cultural life of the country. At the end of the 19th century, and again at the beginning of the 20th century, impressive buildings appeared in the center of Bucharest: works of French architects by Romanian architects trained in France that harmoniously mingled the neo-classical style with the Roccoco style of the French Renaissance. Examples include The CEC (Savings Bank) building, The Military Circle, The Central Post Office, the present National History Museum, The Palace of Justice, and The Cantacuzino Palace.

Additionally the literary and artistic life from the beginning of the 20th century has earned Bucharest the nickname “Little Paris”.
In Bucharest there is no other place to discover the between war atmosphere of “Little Paris” than The Victory Avenue (Calea Victoriei). The main thoroughfare of the city and one of the oldest in town, the road crosses the capital from the north up to the Dâmboviţa river. It carries the visitor between graceful buildings finely decorated with gables and arches; high attics and roofs plated with metal scales and sometimes with gorgeous cupolas; and, wide squares that make room for some wonderful edifices such as The Romanian Athenaeum, The Central University Library and The Royal Palace.

The period following the fall of Communism, in 1989, introduced a series of changes in Bucharest. During this time, it sought to strike a balance between the preservation of its historical character the impulse toward expansion and modernization imposed by an extremely dynamic economic life. With a certain surprise you will discover, walking through the city center, the famous Parliament Palace and numerous ultra-modern edifices that rise among the houses dating from the beginning of the 20th century.

A true European metropolis, Bucharest offers numerous theaters with a great variety of performances, stages, and shows; art galleries with painting, photography, sculpture exhibitions; book fairs; hospitable libraries, where you can hide from the street commotion; and tea houses – all such unique attractions that you must live them to understand the essence of this truly unique metropolis.