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ARAD OPEN 2010 - ENGLISH - Arad - Main attractions (cultural and historical)
ARAD – MAIN ATTRACTIONS
The Municipality of Arad has a rich cultural and historical
patrimony. It offers to the visitors a real out-door museum of the
architectural styles specific to the XVIII, XIX and XX centuries, art and
historical monuments, theatre performances, philharmonic orchestra concerts,
plastic art exhibitions, history museum exhibitions, art and sciences of the
nature, festivals and feasts.
The architecture lovers can admire buildings erected in baroque, renaissance,
eclectic, classic, neo-gothic and secession style, and the most well known
monuments of architecture being mentioned below:
THE ADMINISTRATIVE PALACE
The Administrative Palace, what has actually the name of
Mayor’s Office gives place to the County Council and to the Prefecture. It was
built between 1972 and 1874 after the plans of Pékár Ferenc. Its style alloys
the Flemish neo-renaissance and the late-medieval city-hall style. The building
is U shaped and it has a 54 m high tower what’s clock-movement was brought from
Switzerland in 1878-ban.
THE THEATRE
The main road called Revolution Boulevard, known by the local population as the
Boulevard dominates the central side of the town. One of the most
representative buildings existing at one end of the Boulevard is the State
Theatre from Arad. Because of its dominating position, the building offers a
magnificent view of the Boulevard.
In the next lines, we want to make reference to this building as very few know
its history and details regarding its construction.
THE WATER TOWER
The development the town sustained during the 19th century transformed Arad
from a medieval town into a modern one. The majority of the buildings erected
in this period were in Neoclassic and Secession style offering a specific
character to the town. The central area has polarized the institution, the
greatest part of the flats, commercial, cultural, medical, administrative, and
educational units.
Under the circumstances, the middle of the town has an architectonic area known
by the natives as "The Firemen's Square". The name comes from the
fact that the headquarters of the civilian fireman unit was there. The Firemen's
Square was founded in 1835. Nearby, Saint Florian Chapel was erected; it is
known that Saint Florian is the patron of the firemen.
In the second half of the 19th century, the local authorities decided to build
the Water Tower - an edifice that would be very important for town life. The
tower was built in order to supply the whole town with water and to have enough
water in the case of fires.
The tower is 35 m high and was ready to be used in 1896. As
an architectonic style, it fits the suburb it is placed in. The tower made of
stone and bricks, impresses visitors with its massiveness and height.
The balconies and windows have a nice ornamentation. The visitors are also
impressed by the variety of adornments existing on the top level.
THE FORTIFIED TOWN OF ARAD
The fortified town of Arad is one of the most important historical monuments
existing in the West Side of the country.
Built in the second half of the 17th century, the fortification was considered
to be a very important military building. We are going to motivate the reason
of its existence.
In the first half of the 18th century, the Austrian-Turkish wars were over and
the Habsburgh Empire occupied Transylvania, Banat, and other counties. For
security reasons, the Emperor considered it important to have fortified
buildings in the recently occupied territories.
The office from Vienna established a plan, which foresaw the
erection of fortified towns in the inner area, near the border, towards the
South and the East. Among them, attention was to be given to the Oradea,
Timisoara and Arad fortresses. The Empress Maria Theresa and her son, Josef II,
approved the plan for the Arad fortress.
According to this plan, a new fortress with modern equipment corresponding to
the contemporary military technique was to replace the old one. The new
fortress was to be located on a peninsula of the Mures (on the left side) which
was offered by the local authorities to the military unit. Because of its
building, the town was supposed to be moved in the Zimand plain. The refusal of
the population, and the many appeals sent to Vienna, forced the withdrawal of
the plan to relocate the town. The erecting of the fortress began in the summer
of 1763 under the co-ordination of the architect Harsch, using the Vauban
system. It has a shape of a double star with 6 corners, strong defence walls,
casemates and other military buildings.
The work lasted 20 years with short pauses brought about by the lack of a workforce; the fortress was finished in 1783. After its completion, the fortress housed military units and Arad was changed into a military, political center of the Austrian domination. The history of the fortress in almost 200 years of life has a lot to do with different important events. During the revolution of Horea, in 1784, the fortress was an important place that the Austrian army mobilised from. During the wars of Napoleon, French prisoners were present in the fortress. After the revolution of 1848, the casemates of the fortress were used as prisons for many participants of the revolution; one of them was Eftimie Murgu. Towards the end of the 19th century, the fortress turned into a barracks when its strategic conception became less important.
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