Timisoara Page 2 of 2 The Metropolitan Cathederal The Metropolitan Cathedral of Banat was built after the designs of the architect Ioan Traianescu between 1936 and 1946. Located in one of Timisoara's most frequented sites, the Cathedral, which has a capacity of over 4,000 people, faces the large Victoria Square. At the northern end of the Square stands the marble palace of the National Theatre and the National Opera House - in front of which took place the dramatic stream of events of December 1989. The "Revolution" started in Timisoara and eventually led to the abolition of the communist dictatorship in Romania. Behind the Cathedral flows the Bega river, whose peaceful waters mirror the tall maple-trees flanking its banks. Surrounding the Cathedral on three sides, they spread out the entire area of one of the most romantic parks of Timisoara. Timisoara has been called 'the garden city', with the city having almost 600 hectares of greenspace. Once a water citadel, the Castrum Temesiensis in the old city, was rightfully compared by a 14th century tourist to a turtle lying in marshes. Even after considerable efforts had been made in order to dam up the Timis and Bega rivers, the city (which has over 320,000 inhabitants today) still continued to fight off its "invisible enemy", the subterraneous waters. This is why the Cathedral could not be raised to its present impressive height until after a solid 10 metre-deep foundation supported by 1,700 concrete pillars had been set into the ground and the entire construction consolidated by a 60-80 centimetre-tick slab of concrete. Opera House and National Theatre Both set in Piata Operei (Opera square), they were erected in the 18th century and rebuilt in the 20th century. They are richly adorned and decorated. Banat Village Museum Is located in the Green Wood Forest just outside the city. Founded in 1971 on 43 acres, it contains 21 monuments and 30 peasant dwellings (19th century) with all of their implements, brought from different areas of Banat. A farmhouse, water mills, a windmill, and old farm equipment are present in the Village Museum. The museum is structured on a model of a village with all its institutions: a mayor's office, school, club and church. Old Town Hall It is the oldest building in town (18th century) built in the Renaissance and Baroque style, it stands on the site of a former Turkish public bath built in 1675 (according to the stone inscription written in Arabic) and can be found on Piata Libertatii. | 1 | 2 | Page 2 of 2