This post is our last full day and night in Romania.
This post also sees us drive from Deva to Timisoara in Transylvania in Romania via the city of Hunedoara where we saw Corvin’s Castle.
Hunedoara is only 23km from Deva and home to Corvin’s Castle or Castelul Corvinilor or Castelul Hunyadi. Corvin Castle is a Gothic-Renaissance castle and the largest in Romania. Corvin Castle construction started in 1446 by order of Voivode of Transylvania John Hunyadi. The castle was originally given to John Hunyadi's father, Voyk (Vajk), by Sigismund of Luxembourg, king of Hungary and Croatia, as severance in 1409. From then on it was occupied by the descendants of Voyk and therefore a private residence than a fortress. The castle is very impressive on the outside with a long bridge over moat to its entrance. It is very sparsely furnished inside and undergoing a lot of renovation. Well worth visiting.
Timisoara (Pop 319,279, Elev 90m, Founded 1212) is a multicultural city, being the home of 21 different ethnicities and 18 religions. Conquered in 1716 by the Austrians from the Ottoman Turks, Timișoara developed in the following centuries behind the fortifications and in the urban nuclei located around them. Timișoara was the first city in the Habsburg monarchy with street lighting (1760) and the first European city to be lit by electric street lamps in 1884. It opened the first public lending library in the Habsburg monarchy and built a municipal hospital 24 years before Vienna. Also, it published the first German newspaper in Southeast Europe (Temeswarer Nachrichten). Timișoara was the starting point of the Romanian Revolution.
Timisoara is very unattractive as you enter it in the suburbs, dominated by huge unkept apartment blocks from the communist era and large industrial areas. The centre however is a pleasant surprise with many restored and under restoration classical buildings from the Habsburg rule. The plazas are large and surrounded by these graceful buildings. The Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral with its green and gold towers is the main attraction.
Enjoy the last sights of Romania…
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