Romanian Revolution: Protests continue in Timișoara, Romania, with rioters breaking into the Romanian Communist Party's District Committee building and attempting to set it on fire.
Timioara (UK: , US: , Romanian: [timioara] (listen); German: Temeswar, also Temeschwar or Temeschburg; Hungarian: Temesvr; Serbian: , romanized: Temivar; see other names) is the capital city of Timi County and the main economic, social and cultural centre in western Romania. Located on the Bega River, Timioara is considered the informal capital city of the historical Banat. From 1848 to 1860 it was the capital of the Serbian Vojvodina and the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar. With 319,279 inhabitants at the 2011 census, Timioara was then the country's third most populous city, after Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca. It is home to almost half a million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, while the TimioaraArad conurbation concentrates more than 70% of the population of Timi and Arad counties. Timioara is a multicultural city, home to 21 ethnicities and 18 religions. Interculturality has long been a special characteristic for the western part of the country.
Conquered in 1716 by the Austrians from the Ottoman Turks, Timioara developed in the following centuries behind the fortifications and in the urban nuclei located around them. During the second half of the 19th century, the fortress began to lose its usefulness, due to many developments in the military technology. Former bastions and military spaces were demolished and replaced with new boulevards and neighbourhoods. Timioara was the first city in the Habsburg monarchy with street lighting (1760) and the first European city to be lit by electric street lamps in 1884. It opened the first public lending library in the Habsburg monarchy and built a municipal hospital 24 years before Vienna. Also, it published the first German newspaper in Southeast Europe (Temeswarer Nachrichten). Timioara was the starting point of the Romanian Revolution.Timioara is one of the most important educational centres in Romania, with about 40,000 students enrolled in the city's six universities. Like many other large cities in Romania, Timioara is a medical tourism service provider, especially for dental care and cosmetic surgery. Timioara has made several breakthroughs in Romanian medicine, including the first in vitro fertilization, the first laser heart surgery and the first stem cell transplant. As a technology hub, the city has one of the most powerful IT sectors in Romania alongside Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iai, and Braov. In 2013, Timioara had the fastest internet download speed in the world.Nicknamed the "Little Vienna" or the "City of Flowers", Timioara is noted for its large number of historical monuments and its 36 parks and green spaces. The spa resorts Buzia and Bile Clacea are located at a distance of 30 and 27 km from the city, respectively, mentioned since Roman times for the properties of healing waters. Along with Oradea, Timioara is part of the Art Nouveau European Route. It is also a member of Eurocities. Timioara has an active cultural scene due to the city's three state theatres, opera, philharmonic and many other cultural institutions. The city will be the next European Capital of Culture in 2023.
The Romanian Revolution (Romanian: Revoluția Română) was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world. The Romanian Revolution started in the city of Timișoara and soon spread throughout the country, ultimately culminating in the show trial and execution of longtime Romanian Communist Party (PCR) General Secretary Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena, and the end of 42 years of Communist rule in Romania. It was also the last removal of a Marxist–Leninist government in a Warsaw Pact country during the events of 1989, and the only one that violently overthrew a country's leadership and executed its leader; according to estimates, over one thousand people died and thousands more were injured.Early protests occurred in the city of Timișoara in mid-December on the part of the Hungarian minority in response to an attempt by the government to evict Hungarian Reformed Church pastor László Tőkés. In response, Romanians sought the deposition of Ceaușescu and a change in government in light of similar recent events in neighbouring nations. The country's ubiquitous secret police force, the Securitate, which was both one of the largest in the Eastern Bloc and for decades had been the main suppressor of popular dissent, frequently and violently quashing political disagreement, ultimately proved incapable of stopping the looming, and then highly fatal and successful revolt.Social and economic malaise had been present in the Socialist Republic of Romania for quite some time, especially during the austerity years of the 1980s. The austerity measures were designed in part by Ceaușescu to repay the country's foreign debts. Shortly after a botched public speech by Ceaușescu in the capital Bucharest that was broadcast to millions of Romanians on state television, rank-and-file members of the military switched, almost unanimously, from supporting the dictator to backing the protesters. Riots, street violence and murder in several Romanian cities over the course of roughly a week led the Romanian leader to flee the capital city on 22 December with his wife, Elena. Evading capture by hastily departing via helicopter effectively portrayed the couple as both fugitives and also acutely guilty of accused crimes. Captured in Târgoviște, they were tried by a drumhead military tribunal on charges of genocide, damage to the national economy, and abuse of power to execute military actions against the Romanian people. They were convicted on all charges, sentenced to death, and immediately executed on Christmas Day 1989, and were the last people to be condemned to death and executed in Romania, as capital punishment was abolished soon after. For several days after Ceaușescu fled, serious fighting and street battles took place between revolutionary soldiers and remaining pro-Ceaușescu Securitate, who were skilled fighters. Hospitals in Bucharest were treating as many as thousands of civilians. Following an ultimatum, many Securitate members turned themselves in on 29 December with the assurance they will not be tried.Present-day Romania has unfolded in the shadow of the Ceaușescus along with its Communist past, and its tumultuous departure from it. After Ceaușescu was toppled, the National Salvation Front (FSN) quickly took power, promising free and fair elections within five months. Elected in a landslide the following May, the FSN reconstituted as a political party, installed a series of economic and democratic reforms, with further social policy changes being implemented by later governments. Since that point, Romania became far more integrated with the West as opposed to its former, albeit tepid, relations with the Soviet Union. Romania became a member of NATO and the European Union in 2004 and 2007, respectively. Democratic reforms have proven to be moderately successful, though issues with corruption remain. Economic reforms continue, with Romania still possessing a relatively high child poverty rate.