History

It was initially designed as a „ravelin” (fortification element built inside the first moat of the fortress, approximately mid-way between two towers, in order to „flank” with „flank fire”).

It can be found in plans beginning with 1732. On the 1734 plan it can be seen as completely finished. It was later included in the first fortification ring as a fortress, called Theresia Fortress.

Names and historical functions

1732 – Ravelin for Supply Storage

1744 – 45  - called „Theresia”, in honour of queen Maria Theresia, the „pseudo-emperor”, as her opponents called her.

Architectural style
It belongs to the fortresses with three fortified „rings”, characteristic for the first half and mid 18^th century. The fortifications before 1707, in the times of Vauban, did not have a third outside ring, consisting of fortifying elements called „tyres”.

Unique elements

It was the first rebuilt tower from the old fortress. It is the only of 9 towers built between 1732 – 1761, which was not demolished in early 20^th century.

Other information

Maria Theresia was crowned only as queen of Hungary in 1741 (in 1760, she became the „ apostolic queen” – like a „super-queen”) and queen of Bohemia in 1743. It was only her husband, Francisc I Stephen of Lorena, who was crowned emperor in 1745.

The Habsburg states were run by Maria Theresia, who practically named herself an empress.

Maria Theresia was never crowned an empress. That was actually impossible because she was a woman. In the Holy Empire (Sacrum Romanum Imperium) only men were eligible for emperors, while their wives would be augusta (queen;  but Maria Theresia was already twice a queen and refused the crown of „augusta”). Men only wore trousers. This is why on several caricatures Maria Theresia appears wearing trousers even though we know she gave birth to 16 children.

Some researchers say about Maria Theresia, who was one of the most beautiful women od the 18^th century, and her daughter, Marie Antoanette – queen of France later „ Capet widow” killed by guillotine during the Revolution, that their opponent drew the most trivial, vulgar and tacky caricatures in the „galant” 18^th century.

The fortification and defortification in Timişoara

What is left today of the fortress walls is insignificant. It is hard to imagine the giant work load necessary to built such a defensive system.

For a good period of time the workers had to even the land– dry many water canals which had been intentionally kept for centuries to offer natural defence for the old fortress. As the new fortress was going to be larger, all these water streams had to be steered, the land evened and the foundation built on such swampy ground had to be solid.

When building the walls, large quantities of limestone, clay and wood were used. The wood was used for foundation and burning millions of bricks.

The system structure was quite complicated – in the 18^th century the construction of defensive systems (fortresses) was an absolute science of its own; designing a fortress lasted several years. Under no circumstances can we imagine the fortress of Timişoara as a simple wall! The stelar fortress of Timișoara (inspired by Vauban, but not respecting it fully) har three „rings”; the two exterior ones were thick and didnțt represent walls but complex structures of brick and dirt.

The interior wall (the actual existing wall) was 20 metres high, and had arched blockhouses for artillery facing the town, which were later used for storage. In front of the wall there was a water canal. Facing the three gates, chainbridges make it possible to go across the water. The total width of the three rings, including the canals in between (and other inpositioned defence constructions) was cca. 450 meters.

Outwards, in front of the last ring, a strip of land called “Esplanade” ran, on which nothing but grass was accepted – no buildings, no trees, to have an open field for firing against the enemy. This strip of land had a width of 950 meters (this was considered the standard length of a “canon range” at the beginning of the eighteenth century) all around the city. Practically, it meant that the first buildings were about 1.5 kilometers far from the buildings in the “inner city”. It was only in 1868, after the civil administration’s petitions, that the esplanade width was reduced to 570 meters.

Building the defense system consumed a lot of human and material resources. Part of the unskilled manpower was provided from the so-called “statute labor”; each of the counties around Timişoara had to send 100 people to work every week – they were paid, but very poorly. Prisoners from all over the empire were also sent as unskilled workforce. Of course many construction engineers were needed, highly qualified workforce; due to the inexistance of technical schools in Banat, they had to be brought from “the center” for bigger costs.

Let us remember that this immense fortress, built with great sacrifice in order to protect Timişoara from the Ottoman threat, has never been attacked by the Turks! During the war of 1788, the Turks, although they reached Lugoj, did not dare to besiege the fortress.

The only attack came from the “internal enemy”, i.e. the Hungarian revolutionaries in 1849. But if we take into account that the city withstood the 107 days siege (the only fortress in Transylvania and Banat which resisted; all the others were occupied), and its role in the defeat of the Revolution, one can say that, from the owner’s point of view (the Viennese court’s), the investment was worth it.

The unpopularity of the defense system was something to be expected among the civilians in the city. There was little and expensive land inside the fortress, thus most people of Timişoara had to live in the suburbs of Timişoara, in Fabric, and later in Iosefin and Elisabetin. The simple travel through the city required time (the 3 km distance had to be made in a round trip) and patience – the access through the three gates was complicated, and the gates were, of course, under strict military control.

Following the citizens’ increasingly insistent petitions, the Viennese court finally gives way; taking into account the fighting techniques of the late nineteenth century, the Vauban fortress of Timişoara had become anachronistic anyway. In 1892, the court takes the decion to demolish the walls.

The defortification began – a lengthy process. Controlled demolition was decided from the start, resulting in several million reusable bricks. 19 million of these bricks were subsequently sold to private owners – but they were only allowed to be used in homes’ foundations, as a sanitary precaution. The City Administration used another 7 million bricks for its own buildings. The smaller resulted scraps were used to cover 80,000 square meters of streets.

Mayor Karl Telbisz was the one who gave his best endeavors so that Timişoara could benefit to the fullest following the defortification. Although the decision regarding starting the defortification was taken in 1892, and the dismantling of walls began immediately, it was still unclear who owned the land. Telbisz’s conflict with the military authorities was lengthy: the vast (and extremely valuable) land passed into the city hall’s ownership only in 1905. The 138 hectares of land were worth a lot, due to the privileged position close to the city center (by comparison, the historical neighborhoods of Fabric, Elisabetin and Iosefin were a lot farther apart).

By selling part of these lands to private individuals for construction of houses, as well as from the sale of “second hand” bricks, large sums of cash were gathered for the city budget. From these resources, many schools that still exist today were built on that freed land, and industrial investments were also stimulated: each investor was given free land, a period of 15 years of tax exemption and a yearly subsidy of 10 crowns (for the first 10 years of activity) for each employee.

These modern administrative measures have led to an unprecedented development of the city. Finally, the long-criticized walls proved to be the engine of the emergence of modern Timişoara.