O privire critică asupra unei descrieri inedite a Timișoarei la 1821 în jurnalul de călătorie a lui Mindszenthy Antal / A critical approach regarding an unknown description of Timișoara from 1821 within the travel diary of Mindszenthy Antal

Abstract

Mindszenthy Antal (1786–1859?) was a Hungarian erudite who travelled across Europe and Hungary, leaving behind a diary about his trip across the Hungarian Plane. The first part of his descriptions was published in 1831 and 1832, but due to the censorship of the period, the second part of his manuscript, the description of his trip from Titel to Pest, was not allowed to be printed. The diary of Mindszenthy is kept in the Széchenyi National Library from Budapest, Hungary and was entirely published recently by the Katona József Museum from Kecskemét. Due to the fact that the travel route included regions of Banat that are to be found today within the borders of Romania, one of the stops being the center of the region, namely Timișoara, we thought it would be of great interest to publish the description of the city, both in Hungarian language and translated into Romanian. Timișoara has underwent several reconstructions through the centuries (and it witnessed three major sieges in 1551/1552, 1718 and 1849), consequently the major part of it’s architectural heritage dates from the end of the 19th century, but especialy from the beginning of the following century. Such narrations from eye whitnesses are very scarce in the first part of the 19th century, a period when illustrations are as well extremely rare. A local priest, Nicolae Stoica de Haţeg has written his chronicle about the region of Banat a few years after Mindszenthy, between 1825–1827. Apparently for both of them the work of Francesco Griselini stood as a modell. The original text has been adnoted with comments and interpretations of the authors in order to establish the veridicity of the descriptions of the diary and to provide further information regarding the subject of the account. Since the diary did not included any illustration, for a better understanding we completed it with several images representing either the city plan or buildings, mainly dating from the 19th century or earlier, trying to illustrate the descriptions as faithfully as possible.The text also offered the authors the opportunity to discuss about some historical relics it refers to: an ottoman inscription that was inaccurately translated until now, the Horros Kapi (Rooster or later Forforosa Gate) of the Ottoman fortification of Timișoara and a presumably medieval flag kept in the artillery warehouse.