Arad

Arad stands on the Mureș where the river leaves the hills for the great plain. Its position made it a point of exchange as well as a military post on the approaches to Transylvania. The river divided and connected lands whose rulers changed repeatedly during the Ottoman and Habsburg wars.

Under Ottoman rule from the sixteenth century, Arad developed as a trading centre, especially for salt. After the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 the Mureș became a frontier between the empires, and Arad served as a centre for its defence. Frontier regiments were later abolished, and the town became the seat of the county. A new fortress was built inside a bend of the river between 1763 and 1783, to plans by Ferdinand Philipp Harsch. Its star-shaped works required the labour of thousands and dominated the crossing. In 1834 Arad received the status of a free royal town.