At the end of 164 years of Ottoman
\nrule in Banat, the city of Timisoara became part of the Habsburg Empire in
\n1817, despite being under the occupation of the Austrian army as early as 1716.
\nThe west of Romania thus entered a period of reconstruction under the House of
\nHabsburg. Emperor Carol VI signed the decree to found the Banat of Temeswar,
\nhaving Timisoara as the capital city of this new imperial province. The city
\nunderwent major urban changes that would make it worthy of its new title. <\/p>\n
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One such change was the construction
\nof the Baroque Palace in Union Square, located in today’s old city center, the
\nbuilding that houses the Fine Arts Museum of Timisoara. We spoke to museum
\ndirector, historian Victor Neumann, about the early days of the Baroque Palace:<\/p>\n
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Construction works started in 1733
\nand ended in 1752. The palace became the official residence of the Governor,
\nthen of the president of Timis County, serving as the de facto headquarters of
\nthe Banat of Temeswar at the time, until 1779. During this period the palace
\nserved as both the province’s headquarters and the governor’s residence. Many
\npublic servants actually lived there. It was built by Austrian engineers
\ncommissioned from Vienna. The entire surroundings were actually rebuilt, as the
\nauthorities tore down every single element of the old Turkish citadel still
\nstanding. Timisoara is one of the few European cities that were almost
\ncompletely demolished in order to be rebuilt in the 18th century.<\/p>\n
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All throughout this century
\nTimisoara’s appearance transformed radically, in line with the urban and
\narchitectural standards of late Baroque, specific to many cities in Central
\nEurope. This particular style also come with a certain interior design: the
\nground floor was reserved for administrative or commercial areas, the living
\nquarters always had street orientation, while access to the interior courtyards
\nwas always made through vaulted corridors. These architectural prerequisites
\nwere also applied to the Baroque Palace, whose architects remain unknown to
\nthis day. <\/p>\n
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Under Habsburg administration, the
\nbuilding took on several names and functions. It became the administrative
\npalace of the Timis Banat until 1778; after Hungary’s annexation of Banat in
\nJune 1778 it served as the Prefect’s head office until 1848. After the
\nrepression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1849, the palace housed the
\ngovernment of the Timis Banat and the Serb Vojvodina. Victor Neumann again:<\/p>\n
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First and foremost, it is an area
\nof the city’s German and Serb administration. It has a ground floor and two
\nfloors, two courtyards, annexes with stables and warehouses which existed even
\nin the 19th century. The chancellery of Banat and the military
\ncashier’s office were on the ground floor. In the 19th century and
\nthe first half of the 20th century, it continued to be an
\nadministrative seat. The Palace has housed the Prefect’s head office since the
\nregion and the city of Timisoara became part of Romania in 1918. After World
\nWar II, during the communist regime, the building was home to the University of
\nAgronomy and Veterinary Medicine and since 1990, it has been destined to house
\nthe Art Museum. Actually, the museum has been housed here since 2006.<\/p>\n
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In the late 19th century,
\nthe Baroque Palace underwent changes, looking as it does today. The change had
\nto cater for the taste of the time in that the style of the building had to be
\nemblematic for contemporary architecture. Therefore, restoration works were
\ncarried out through stylistic purification over 1885-1886 by Jakob-Jacques
\nKlein (1855-1928), an architect and building contractor from Cernauti, a city
\nthat currently belongs to Ukraine. Obviously, it was not the last change that
\nbuilding underwent. Now, other restoration works are being carried out for the
\nBaroque Palace to regain its former glamour and the collections and exhibitions
\nof the Art Museum to be better promoted. There are collections of modern
\nRomanian art, icons from Banat, modern European art and a permanent exhibition
\nfeaturing painter Corneliu Baba.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With its fine collection of Romanian and European art, the Museum is one of the main attractions in Timisoara.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":149668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45492,29645],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-fine-arts-museum","tag-timisoara"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n