Architecture guided tours in Timisoara.

In 2019, along with the third edition of the Timișoara art biennial, Art Encounters, we propose a series of direct such encounters with art, in the tour that will guide us through spaces hosting the invited artists’ works, to discover their visions and interpretations, with Timișoara as a starting point. We will stop at spaces already known for their various exhibitions or cultural manifestations – Theresia Bastion and Huniade Castle -, but also at unexpected locations that provoked the artists’ imagination, such as Price Eugenou of Savoya House, the North Train Station, the West University and the Southern Park from the Soarelui neighbourhood.

The invisible city tour proposes an immersion in the artistic-cultural life of Timișoara, on a route that will reveal a series of temporary actions, artistic installations, performances, concerts and cultural movements in the more or less conventional spaces that hosted them, and is part of a series of encounters with art, architecture and public spaces, realised as part of the third edition of the Timișoara art biennial, Art Encounters. 

Through this tour, organized at the initiative and with the support of our partner - the German Cultural Center Timișoara -, we celebrate 100 years since the establishment of the Bauhaus School and we suggest a walk along the streets and boulevards developed during the interwar period, but also an incursion into the historic urban fabric of the Fabric neighborhood, with its modern insertions made during a period of intense construction process in the city - with an impressive 5973 building permits issued between 1919 and 1943.

Timisoara is a city with a rich architectural heritage, which, due to poor information and implications of its inhabitants, is in a continuous process of degradation. In this context, this is the tour of the last century of Timisoara's bourgeoisie. At its center there are the middle class and local professional elites from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century.

Taking advantage of the new velo infrastructure for a bicycle ride along the begging Bega, we propose a route linking the Hydroelectric Plant to the Chemical Compound "The Solvent", crossing the 300 year history of Timisoara. The history of the bridges, parks and outstanding buildings along the route is complemented by the memory of Bega's industries and navigation.

In the current political, social and economic context, it is necessary to focus our attention on education as well as on the quality of the architectural space in which the learning process takes place. Thus, this tour aims to cherish the relationship between architectural design and the way we perceive interior and exterior space.

With the walk through Balcescu Square, Carmen Sylva Park, Gheorghe Doja Park, St. Mary's Square and Alexandru Mocioni Square we will discover the history of Timisoara's newest historical district. An opportunity to understand how different architectural styles have overlapped with the concept of ‘garden city’, resulting in the Elizabetin neighbourhood as we know it today.

By playing we discover the newest historical district of Timisoara - Elisabetin, we learn to identify details and decorations on the facades and to decipher the urban landmarks necessary for the orientation in the city. Children aged 7 to 10 can participate in activities in Gheorghe Doja Park, where, under the pretext of the game, they will develop space orientation skills and discover urban art concepts.

Children's expedition is organized in partnership with the Architecture Association, an adaptation of the first adult tour through the educational materials developed by the association over the five years of activity. Children will discover and collect old city images and develop their sense of observation as well as orientation with the help of a map and city landmarks.

Stepping through Union Square, St.George Square, Freedom Square and Victory Square will bring to the forefront the history of the oldest neighborhood in the city and its immediate surroundings. The evolution of the markets is a pretext to develop the core themes of urban identity, how public space is shaped, and how the inhabitants of Timisoara use the public areas.

Ee discover Art 1900 – New Art, New Style, Art Nouveau, Modern Style, Jugendstil, Secession, different names of the style according to the geographical position of its followers,  in it various forms in Timisoara. Influenced by 1900 art expressions in Vienna and Budapest, wiener Sezession and magyar Szecessió mix and overlap often in the architecture of the Bega Canal city.

By focusing on the restoration processes, the various schools that teach about it and the processes of rehabilitation and refunctionalization, we will discover a less understood area. In the Iosefin neighborhood we will talk about its evolution, the important personalities who have influenced it and the representative buildings of the area.