Prince Eugene House
Casa Prințului Eugen
EtymologyPrince Eugene of Savoy
General information
Architectural styleClassicist
LocationTimișoara, Romania
Coordinates45°45′25″N 21°13′34″E / 45.75694°N 21.22611°E / 45.75694; 21.22611
Construction started1817
Technical details
MaterialBrick

The Prince Eugene House (Romanian: Casa Prințului Eugen) is a historical building in Timișoara, Romania, built in 1817 on the site of the Forforosa Gate, through which Eugene of Savoy entered the Timișoara Fortress on 18 October 1716, after being conquered from the Ottomans following the 1716 siege. Above the main entrance, there is a medallion with a copy of a naïve representation of the Forforosa Gate, the restored original being kept at the National Museum of Banat.[1]

History

Before 1716, on the site where now are the courtyards of the houses at 5 Eugene of Savoy Street and 8 Mărășești Street was the Rooster Gate[2]: 18  (Horoz Kapısı in Turkish),[3] one of the five gates of the Timișoara Fortress during the Ottoman occupation, located in its northwestern part.[4] Contemporary descriptions place the construction date of the gate tower in the medieval period, before the conquest of 1552.[5] The gate tower was also depicted on the coat of arms of the Banat of Temeswar.[6] Through this gate, on 18 October 1716, Eugene of Savoy, the commander of the Habsburg army that conquered the fortress on 12 October, entered the fortress.[7][8] In 1716 the gate was called Prince Eugene's Gate, and from 1727 Forforosa Gate.[2]: 44 

After organizing the new Austrian defense system, the gate was included within the fortress walls. The gate was eventually bricked up in a rectangular building built on the site of the old Turkish ditches,[9] as attested by the city plan of 1778.[10] Between 1739 and 1769, the building was used by the Jewish community as a house of prayer.[7] After an urban renewal, it was demolished in 1817 together with the Forforosa Gate.[11] From the resulting bricks, Prince Eugen House was built in the so-called Jewish quarter.[7] During the construction of the house, its owner received the task from the municipality to place above the entrance the bas-relief in which the image of the old gate is depicted.[12] In 1828, the building was standing in its current form, with a built-up area of 90 klafters (c. 324 m2).[10] Despite the name, Eugene of Savoy never lived here, the house being built 81 years after his death.[13]

In 1829, Michael Zacher, who had bought the old building in 1804 and built the new one, sold it to Michael Moran for 19,000 florins.[10] Over time, the building passed to various owners by exchange, inheritance or purchase. In 1909, the widow of Sebastian Savici (Savić) obtained approval for alterations to the building. In the interwar period, shops selling vegetables, fruit, milk and bread operated in the building, then they were replaced by a restaurant and a pub. In 1934, the premises were transformed into the General Bureau of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, and from 1946 into the Theater Agency.[12][14] The nationalization of 1948 stopped any private initiative. After 1990, the building was returned to the descendants of the Savici family.[8]

Architecture

The house is a corner building with a floor and an attic, organized according to a U-shaped plan, with the main façade on Eugene of Savoy Street and a side façade on Mărășești Street, both pedestrian. The body on the southern front and the other two wings delimit a small inner courtyard, with an almost square shape. The building preserves the way of organization specific to the 18th and 19th centuries, with a symmetrical solution to the access corridor, a balanced staircase leading to the first floor and a distribution of circulation in the rooms on the first floor through an access deck in console.[15]

The exterior façades are simple.[15] The summary decorations (profiles at the cornice) and geometric bossages are classicist. The plinths of the windows have doubled edges, a baroque element.[10]

References

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  1. ↑ "Casa Prințului Eugeniu de Savoia, Timișoara". Welcome to Romania.
  2. 1 2 Opriș, Mihai (2007). Timișoara. Monografie urbanistică. Vol. I. Descoperiri recente care au impus corectarea istoriei urbanistice a Timișoarei. Timișoara: Brumar.
  3. ↑ Biyik, Ömer (2015). "1652–53 Tarihli şer'iye sicili'ne göre Temeşvar". Karadeniz Araştırmaları. 12 (45): 233–251. doi:10.17782/ka.07387.
  4. ↑ Feneșan, Costin (2014). "O descriere a cetății Timișoara din august 1716" (PDF). Analele Banatului, S.N., Arheologie–Istorie. 21: 295–299.
  5. ↑ Kopeczny, Zsuzsanna; Pánya, István (2020). "O privire critică asupra unei descrieri inedite a Timișoarei la 1821 în jurnalul de călătorie a lui Mindszenthy Antal" (PDF). Analele Banatului, S.N., Arheologie–Istorie. 26: 205–237.
  6. ↑ Basarabă, Drăgan-George (2017). "Despre stema Banatului. Certitudini și supoziții heraldice". Acta Terrae Fogarasiensis. 6: 157–174. ISSN 2285-5130.
  7. 1 2 3 Bălteanu, Daniel (18 October 2020). "Casa Prințului Eugeniu de Savoya, clădirea construită din cărămizile fostei porți Forforosa prin care a intrat în cetate eliberatorul Timișoarei". Opinia Timișoarei.
  8. 1 2 Delesega, Gyula (2018). Temesvári kalauz téridőben (PDF). Szórvány Alapítvány. pp. 76–77.
  9. ↑ Moț, Teodora; Petroman, Ioan (2014). "Cultural-Baroque tourism: Viennese influences in Timișoara". Lucrări Științifice, Seria I. 16 (4): 112–117.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Cartarea monumentelor istorice din situl urban "Cetatea Timișoara" – cvartal 14" (PDF). Primăria Municipiului Timișoara. pp. 98–99.
  11. ↑ Drinovan, Gheorghe (1969). Din vechea și noua istorie a Banatului. Timișoara. pp. 2–3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. 1 2 Both, Ștefan (18 October 2016). "Casa „Prințului Eugen" din Timișoara, o poveste cu parfum de epocă. Acum 200 de ani, proprietarul clădirii a primit sarcină care trebuie respectată pe veci". Adevărul.
  13. ↑ Păun, Liana (18 October 2016). "Istoria Timișoarei, „materie" grea pentru autorități, de-a lungul timpului. Ce confuzie a apărut la „Casa prințului Eugen"". pressalert.ro.
  14. ↑ Daniel, Mihaela (15 May 2015). "Casa „Prințul Eugen"". Merg.În.
  15. 1 2 Pescar, Felicia-Raluca (2017). "Restaurarea casei Prințului Eugeniu de Savoya" (PDF). Transsylvania Nostra. 11 (3): 2–15.
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