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| OLD PHOTOS ABOUT
TARGU MURES |
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Târgu-Mureş,
lying in the middle of the Transylvanian plateau, in the rich
and fertile valley of the Maros river, appears firs in written
documents in the 14th century. Then its name is Új Vásárhely
(New Marketplace of the Szeklers), Novum Forum Sicolorum in
Latin.
The slow process of its developing
into a town begins in the second half of the 13th century, after
the invasion of the Tartars, when it becomes the market place
of the Szeklers of the Szekler county. Since 1323 its name,
Székelyvásárhely, appears continuously in the reports of the
papal tithe collectors. |
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The charter
in which Bethlen Gábor advances Tîrgu Mureş to the rank
of free royal town and which assured the legal setting
for the building of the citadel. |
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King Mátyás's
charters give an impulse to the urbanizing process at the end
of the 15th century. In 1616 Gábor Bethlen, duke of Transylvania,
makes it an independent royal town, called Târgu-Mureş. Now
all the conditions are ready to continue the building of the
fortress begun in 1602. North of the city center the stately
edifice of the church surrounded by the pentangular walls is
one of Transylvania's greatest and oldest buildings of its kind.
The beginning of its building goes back to the Franciscans who
settled down in the 13th century and built a cloister and a
church in late gothic style.
During István Báthori, (duke of
Transylvania) the cloister and church are surrounded by walls.
In the early 17th century the building proves to be small to
protect the town's inhabitants in time of wars. Tamás Borsos,
the town magistrate proposes and supervises the building of
a fortress. In a half century the fortress will stand. The existing
guilds also take part in its building and defense. The seven
bastions bear the names of the several guilds: like the butchers',
tailors', shoemakers', coopers', fur-traders' bastions. |
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Tîrgu
Mureş in the year 1827. Nagy Sándor's copper engraving
made after Mikolai Tóth István's drawing. |
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It is very
probable that teaching is going on from the mid 14th century
in the Franciscan cloister. But what we know for sure is that
in 1557 the reformed church establishes one of the first schools
here, named Schola Particola. This is the legal predecessor
of the present Bolyai Farkas Highschool. Among the professors
of this school we have to mention Bolyai Farkas the famous mathematician
and his son Bolyai János who put the basis of the non-Euclidean
geometry. The first printing press of the town is also set up
within the walls of the school in 1786.
In the 18th and 19th centuries the town becomes one of Transylvania's
cultural centers.
In 1802 count Sándor Teleki founds
the first public library with an encyclopedic character, the
Teleki Teka. |
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1. The town's west vista (1800's)
2. The citadel at the beginning of the 20th century
3. Royal Plate (1789)
4. The Reformat High-School (1800's).
5. The Teleki Library (1802)
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The early 19th
century marks the beginning of the town's urbanization. The
main square and streets are paved; the Szekler man-of-all-works
Peter Bodor makes a musical fountain. The present center of
the town is born with a large park and sidewalks. Along them
one-, two- and three-story buildings rise with shops and cafes.
Târgu-Mureş starts on the way
of modernization during the mayorship of dr. György Bernády.
Canalization, street lighting, new schools and other public
institutions preserve the mayor's memory. The Town Hall (1905-1907),
the Palace of Culture (1911-1913) are designed by Marcell Komor
and Dezső Jakab. Their high artistic accomplishment made them
remarkable throughout Europe. The two edifices have become the
symbols of the town. |
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