IWMCG 11 & ISMCG 1

Location of the Conference

Timisoara, the largest city in western Romania, grew around the site of Castrum Regium Themes (Castri de Thymes), an ancient Roman crossroad fortress. Although surrounded by marshlands, in 1241, Timisoara was invaded and partially destroyed by the Tatars. In 1552, the Turkish armies conquered Timisoara and kept the town under their authority until 1716 when the region of Banat came under Austrian rule. Soon after the Habsburg Empire took over the Banat region, from the Ottomans, the new governor of Banat, General Mercy, commissioned a heptagram-shaped bastion with strong walls, towers and gates. During early 1720s large numbers of Swabian immigrants settle in Timisoara. The Swabians – skilled craftsmen from Swabia, southern Germany – helped transform Timisoara in a major commercial and manufacturing town. Austrians, Germans, Jews, Serbians and Hungarians all left their mark during the two centuries of Austrian domination of Timisoara.