Timis
Where Europe's first electric streetlights shone and communism's fall began, the Banat's multicultural capital (21 ethnic groups) hosts western Romania's economy.
Timis County exists because the Banat needed a fortress and Romania needed a revolution. First documented in 1212 as Roman castrum Temesiensis, Timisoara became a 14th-century marsh fortress - residence of Charles I of Hungary until Ottoman conquest in 1552. Austria liberated the city in 1716; the 1718 Treaty of Passarowitz brought Habsburg governance and Swabian German colonization that made Timisoara multicultural (21 ethnic groups, 18 religious denominations today). In 1884, Timisoara became the first European city with electric street lights. On December 15-17, 1989, demonstrations sparked the revolution that toppled Ceausescu - 130 dead, 3,352 wounded, but on December 20 Timisoara became Romania's first Free Town. The city earned 2023 European Capital of Culture designation. Today it is western Romania's main economic center: Central Europe's largest pork processing plant, diverse manufacturing, and the country's fifth most populous city (250,849 in 2021). The 1920 Treaty of Trianon transferred the Banat from Hungary to Romania. By 2026, Timisoara's revolution legacy and EU Capital of Culture infrastructure will drive cultural tourism while manufacturing diversifies.