1.

Objective THE OLD TOWNHALL or THE GERMAN TOWNHALL

name
(photo)

IN THE FOREGROUND IS MY FIRST OSCAR! 😊

2. Administrato Music and Theater Faculty (UVT)

r / owner
3. Contact ioana.ivaschescu@e-uvt.ro
4. Contacts 4.1. Address: Piața Libertății, nr. 1, Timișoara, Timiș, ROMANIA
4.2. Phone/fax: Tel: +40-(0)256-592650
Fax: +40-(0)256-59265
4.3. E-mail: muzicateatru.secretariat@e-uvt.ro, www.muzica.uvt.ro
4.4. Web site: www.muzica.uvt.ro
4.5. GPS coordinates: 45°45′22″N 21°13′39″E
4.6. More details:
5. Timetable 5.1. Timetable: DOESN'T EXIST
and access
fees 5.2. Access fees: NO FEES CHARGE
6. Historical 6.1. Construction start date: 1731 - 1734
attestation
6.2. Construction completion date/inauguration: 1782; ref. sec. XIX

6.3. Architect: Josef Aigner

6.4. Architectural style: The architectural style is close to the eclectic one but it
has also classic elements and some renaissance, typical for the middle of the 14th
century when was made the biggest restoration.
6.4. LMI code: TM-II-m-A-06142
7. Access The acess is made trough the front of the building, trough the gate from Liberty
Square;
Means of transport:
- tram lines 1, 2, 4, 5, and 10 Liberty Square station
8. Nearby Statue “St. Mary” and “John of Nepomuk” ; Military Command House ; Military
sights (5) Casino ; St. George Square ; Moravetz Bookshop ; The synagogue from the city ;
The House of “ Prince Eugene of Savoy “
9. Accommodat 9.1. Accommodation: Hotel Timisoara, Hotel Victoria; Hotel Continental; Hostel
ion and Central
restaurants 9.2. Restaurants: Restaurant Casa cu Flori; Sky Restaurant; Brewery 700; Brewery
nearby Curtea Berarilor; Restaurant “La Calul Alb”
10 Details about 10.1. Historic: In 24th December 1731, the mayor Peter Solderer has settled the
. the tourist foundation for future German Townhall. Some sources record that the edifice was
objective done in 1734. As was the habit that days, but pepetuated unil prezent, is very
(historic) possible that it was some work was done to the building even years after the
completion date. Some documents prove that the completion year is 1936. Maybe
some supplemental work for fisnish and decoration elements was done after the
rise and summary finishing.

It is known as a landmark exactly that on February 15, 1735, in the building of the
new town hall, the election of the mayor took place. Peter Solderer was re-elected
for his merits. From this moment on, the building will be called "New City Hall" or
"German" in order to differentiate itself from the old Serbian one located
somewhere further north of the Citadel. The Serbian one worked for many years in
the building of today's German high school "Nikolaus Lenau”.

The building is designed on three levels: a ground floor at street level and two high
floors. The facade of the ground floor is less ornate and has the visual role of a
pedestal of the columns on the upper floors. Above the monumental gate there is
a balcony with wrought metal hardware and four arched windows that run on the
two floors. The whole facade of the building is fragmented by numerous boxes
delimited by pilasters, each box containing two windows arranged vertically.
Behind these monumental windows is the old meeting room, which had other
functions over time.

The building is composed of two parts, which today seem a unitary whole, not an
ensemble of two distinct buildings. From the beginning, the older part had a rather
symmetrical facade, with the gate as a reference axis. The right side of the building
is newer. And it was originally an independent building with private housing. Here,
once upon a time, upstairs, on the facade, there was a sundial. As an architectural
style, the building is the closest to the eclectic one, but it also has classicist and
some renaissance elements, typical for the period from the middle of the 19th
century, when the most massive renovation took place.

On the frontispiece of the building, is represented the coat of arms and the seal of
the city, received by the German community, representing a fortress strongly
defended with wooden beams but with an open gate. The gate is guarded by two
defense towers. In the extreme right, on the frontispiece, there is an image of a
portion of the palisade of the Turkish walls interrupted by what appears to be
"Prince Eugene's gate". Over time, the City Hall undergoes several more
transformations.

From 1781 he obtained the title of City Hall of the Royal Free City of Timișoara. And
immediately in the following year, 1782, it goes through an extensive process of
quite deep repairs that can even be considered a reconstruction of the building
under the leadership of the architect Josef Aigner. It gives it the character of an
Italian Renaissance building. The coat of arms of the city, which shows the character
of a free city, is also changing. During the siege and the Hungarian Revolution of
1848, it suffered massive damage due to artillery shells that hit it in several places.
Between 1848 and 1849, the commander of the fortress, Baron Georg Rukavina
von Vidovgrad, at that time with the rank of field marshal-lieutenant, ordered two
loaded cannons to be placed in front of the town hall, to intimidate the civilian
population, not to make "thoughtless gestures” such as switching to the side of the
Hungarian revolutionaries. It is not known if they were used, unlike those on the
fortifications, which rumbled almost continuously for over a hundred days.

Another renovation took place in 1853. With this occasion, the traces of the
bombings were removed and the building received its new facade, the one that
exists to this day. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th
century there were a few more repairs, but they did not influence the style and
general proportions of the building.
Nowadays, the "Old Town Hall" is the headquarters of several institutions such as
the Faculty of Music, which uses the former meeting and ballroom as a concert hall,
called Orpheum. Here is, among other things, an organ necessary for student
concerts. The Agricultural Directorate of the county has a number of offices here.
On the ground floor of the building there has been a pharmacy with quite old
furniture for decades and which is worth seeing by those who are healthy for the
vintage air, obviously. The pharmacy is also known for the cactus flowers in the
window, which over time have become a real emblem of the place.
 10.2. References: l love Timisoara – DINU BARBU; www.timisoara-info.ro; Merg
in; Timisoara Info; „How the New City Hall suddenly aged and became the Old City
Hall”- by Titus Bălan - September 20th 2016

11 Other Near the main entrance, to its right, is an inscription from the Ottoman period, a
. information testimony of the Ottoman rule existing in the fortress. Most researchers believe
that the inscription refers to the existing Turkish bath on the east side of the
square, near the intersection between the current Alecsandri and Praporgescu
streets. The inscription is written in Arabic characters, in the Turkish-Ottoman
language, a language containing 60-80% of words that are borrowed from Arabic
and Persian, and therefore very difficult to understand, or even
incomprehensible, for the contemporary Turks.
The great orientalist Aurel Decei who refuted this theory, bringing some elements
from the chronicle of Evlia Celebi. He describes what he saw in his passage
through the “vilayat” of Timişoara: “The fortress has 5 gates. The first is the "Gate
of Azapilor". It had the following inscription: “Any enemy who thinks evil of this
city will be defeated by the sword of the people of Allah. Abidi Hatif -I - Kudsi said
the date: Glory to Allah! The great fortress (s.n.) was committed in 1052 ”. Thus,
at least it is known the year in which the Ottoman fortress construction ends.
So there is no question of a Turkish bath, or of "horror weather under Ibrahim
Ehan," or other assertions concerning the approximate dating of the text, in the
first decades of the seventeenth century. Corroborating the data mentioned by
Evlia Celebi with the date of this inscription, we have a concordant picture on the
place where that inscription was originally posted (on the walls of the GREAT
FORTRESS of Timişoara), dated 1643, as well as the name of the ruler of that time:
Sultan IBRAHIM KHAN ”conch Dan Toma Dulciu.