The Evangelic Lutheran Church is situated in the Ionel I.C. Brătianu Square, not far from the Fountain at the Cardinal Points. 

As far as the date of the construction of this edifice, some sources indicate 1831 (probably the year of the first project), but most sources indicate 1837 to 1839.

Architectural style

Classicist style. Most significant elements are the façade’s Doric pilasters on two levels, the triangular fronton and the Ionic tower pilasters are significant. The tower’s roof, in a Neo-Baroque-style, was probably raised in 1902. The architect of this building was Anton Schmidt.

Unique elements

The building of evangelical churches in Timişoara was possible only after Emperor Joseph II issued the Patent of Religious Tolerance on 13^th of October 1781.

The evangelical community today is composed of Germans, Hungarians, Romanians and Slovaks; the religious service is celebrated in all four languages. The Lutheran Community is currently small in Timişoara: of about 400 people.

The first Protestants who arrived in Banat were Germans (especially from the region of Baden-Württemberg), at the end of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Their number was not large, for the golden era of colonization in the Banat plain had passed, the good land being already occupied by Catholic settlers from previous immigration waves. Later in the nineteenth century Hungarian and Slovak Evangelicals arrived in Banat, and in urban centers such as Timişoara Romanians have also become evangelical as a result of mixed marriages.

Other information

The edifice is built on a land that until 1831 had no buildings. Only in that year was the plot parceled and sold for building. The church is flanked by buildings built after that year:

- north of the church – the building on 2 Coşbuc St. , with three storeys, typical for the nineteenth century (not 2 storeys, as were most homes in the eighteenth century). The façade corresponds to the Classicist style with some Baroque reminiscences (the decoration above the 1^st floor windows).

- south of the church – 2 Ionel I.C. Brătianu St., Classicist building with Doric pillars that mark the entrance portal. In the wall on the first floor, on the façade’s half to the right, a projectile is preserved from those fired from the Fabric district on the fortress by the artillery of the besiegers in 1849. Not far away, in the Classicist style building on 1 Palanca St., on the façade facing Chinezu St., on the right edge of the ground floor façade there is also a projectile since 1849 embedded in brickwork.

- south of the church – 1 Ionel I.C. Brătianu St., lays the building called “the House with the Iron Axis”  due to the metal element, mounted as a “house mark” on the corner of Ionel I.C. Brătianu St. and Ţepeş Vodă Square.

Legends

The folklore in Timişoara states that “the iron axis” is the axle from the war chariot on which Prince Eugen of Savoy would have entered the fortress. In reality, the axis comes from a heavy artillery piece (large caliber canon), from the beginning of the nineteenth century.

In 1716, war chariots were not used, as in antiquity. We know that Prince Eugen entered the city on horseback.

Of all of Timişoara’s monuments, the Evangelical church is probably the most directly related to the personality of Emperor Joseph II (although it was built long after his death). He was the typical model of the “enlightened monarch”; he regarded himself as “the first clerk of the Empire”. As a supporter of enforcing the state’s power by centralization, he consistently sought to reduce the influence of the Catholic Church which, supported by his mother (Maria Theresa was a fervent Catholic), had acquired great wealth and uncontrollable power in the state. In religious matters, the young Prince’s model was Friedrich II of Prussia, who practiced an almost complete religious tolerance.

Critics today accuse the authoritarian manner in which he imposed his reforms, according to the principle of “Everything for the people. Nothing by the people.” Therefore, despite his Progressivism, he was never a popular monarch; a large contribution to this was made by the church, attacked in its rights – he closed many monasteries throughout the empire, both Catholic and Orthodox

He became acquainted with Timişoara when he was still relatively young (he was only a co-regent), when his mother sent him in 1768 to examine “on site” whether the complaints  made by German settlers in the Banat  were justified. Observing the corruption inside administration offices in Timişoara, he drew up a severe report to his after returning to Vienna; soon enough, the colonization administration is replaced. After another four years, the problems do not cease, and this time the entire high administration of Banat loses their positions!