Timișoara

Timișoara, known to Hungarians as Temesvár, grew around a fortress amid the marshes of the Banat. The surrounding wetlands made the city difficult to approach, while its position gave its rulers a base from which to govern the plain and the roads toward Transylvania. The castle rebuilt by John Hunyadi in the fifteenth century stood at the heart of the fortified town.

In 1552 the Ottomans captured Timișoara after a siege and made it the centre of an eyalet. Its fortress remained a vital Ottoman stronghold for more than a century and a half, resisting later attacks despite the damage caused by artillery. In 1716 Prince Eugene of Savoy besieged the town, which surrendered to the imperial army. The conquest brought the Banat under Habsburg military administration, ending the long period in which the city had served as an Ottoman provincial capital.

The new authorities undertook extensive works to reshape the city and its surroundings. A bastioned fortress replaced the older defences, while Governor Claude Florimond de Mercy promoted drainage and the regulation of the Bega. Work on a navigable canal began in 1728, and a vessel reached Pančevo along it in 1732. The waterway connected Timișoara with the Danube system as settlers arrived from different parts of Europe and a new city grew around the fortified centre.