“Radio Romania 85”
Join us on a tour of the western county of Timis and its capital Timisoara, the Romanian city where the 1989 anti-communist revolution started.
Ștefan Baciu, 18.04.2013, 13:34
Radio Romania International has launched a new prize-winning contest entitled “Radio Romania 85”. It is devoted to the 85th anniversary of Radio Romania, celebrated on November 1st. It was back in 1928, that the first official radio broadcasting was made in Romania. Therefore, until June the 30th, we’ll take a look at the history of the Romanian public radio, bringing to your attention not only personalities who left an indelible mark on the institution but also information on the current structure of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation.
The winners of the Grand Prize will have the opportunity to visit the Gorj, Timis and Cluj counties, three areas in Romania covered by Radio Romania’s regional stations.
You can find out more about the tourist attractions in these regions by listening to our travel features. We start our tour in the western county of Timis and its capital Timisoara, the Romanian city where the 1989 anti-communist revolution started. The Timis County, currently part of the Banat region, was along the years part of the Ottoman Empire, the Hapsburg Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, respectively. Its being administered by so many different powers mirrors in the area’s economic and cultural development. Timisoara, which was documented in the 13th century, is home to Romanians, Germans, Serbs, Hungarians, Croatians, Slovakians and Bulgarians, Ukrainians and Jews, who have coexisted peacefully along the years. Timisoara is also the first city in Europe to introduce street lighting, back in November 1884.
But let’s discover this great city, with our colleague from Radio Timisoara, Felicia Ristea: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about Timisoara! We are very proud of our city, and local patriotism is highly valued here. Timisoara has been a city oriented towards progress and science since the late 19th century, when the first replicas of inventions featured at important exhibitions in Vienna and Paris were brought to Timisoara and analysed together with the public at large. You can imagine the impact of all those major European inventions have had on the city. The city also boasts museums of art. Thanks to a sort of competition between two famous art lovers and collectors, baron Ormos Zsigmond and Samuel van Brukenthal, we now have what to show to the world.”
If baron Samuel van Brukenthal founded the Art Museum in Sibiu, which bears his name, in the 19th century, Ormos Zsigmond laid the foundations of the Banat Museum and of the Art Museum in Timisoara, where his painting, graphic and decorative art collection is put on show.
But Timisoara boasts many other tourist attractions, as Felicia Ristea tells us:“The Village Museum is now home to the most beautiful little houses specific to western Romania. The Banat Museum, laid out in the Terezia bastion, is also worth visiting. In its turn, the Revolution Museum in Timisoara offers glimpses of history. It treasures bits of history, moments of intense emotion, of accumulated hope, along the communist years. The Philharmonics and the Opera offer concerts and shows around the clock. The Spanish Culture Days have just come to an end, the CafeKultour Days have just commenced, and at the weekend, when this event comes to a close, it will be a good opportunity for art and culture lovers to start off on the first day of the Students Festival. The State Theatre offers shows in Romanian, Hungarian and German. For years we have benefited from the presence of great actress Maia Morgenstern, whom we wait to come back to Timisoara in the following days and who performed in several exquisite shows, some of which were in Yiddish.”
In a multicultural and multiethnic city like Timisoara, it is expected that, places of worship be included among the most sought-after tourists attractions, beyond their basic role.
Journalist Felicia Ristea from Radio Timisoara: “Worship places in Timisoara have their own charm- from the Jewish Temple, with its Moorish-styled architecture, to the Catholic Dome and the Serbian Church in the Union Square as well as our Orthodox Cathedral in the Victory Square, which was visited by king Mihai. All these are extraordinary places, exquisite tourist attractions, where one can find everything that is valuable in the European culture. And let’s not forget that Timisoara is the city of roses, because the Muhles, a family of florists, have turned their passion into a genuine industry. Muhle is the one who designed, among other things, the floral arrangements in the Cisimigiu Garden in Bucharest, as well as in other similar public gardens and parks in Sofia or Tokyo. So, come to Timisoara and enjoy its cosmopolitan flavor!”
