The Old Farms - The Elisabetin


      The Antirabic Institute is on Victor Babes Boulevard
   (intersecting with Mihai Viteazul), at number 12; today is
   called the Institute of Hygiene; it was built in 1926-1936 by
   the architect Adrian Suciu; it was modernized between 1947-1949.
   Not far away is the Bega Hospital. In front of the hospital is
   the bust of Victor Babes (1854-1926), the son of the big patriot
   Vincentiu Babes [42]; the bust was done by Romulus Ladea (1901-
   1970).
      Victor Babes was a doctor, a bacteriology and pathology
   professor at the medicine faculty from Bucharest, a member of
   the Romanian Science Academy, one of the founders of the modern
   microbiology and the author of the first bacteriology treaty in
   this world. His discoveries and studies about leper, defter, and
   tuberculosis are known worldwide; his discoveries pertaining to
   the microbial antagonism were at the basis of modern antibiotic
   industry [43].

      The Center for Scientific Research of the Romanian Academy,
   built in 1963, is at the intersection of the two boulevards we
   had just spoken. Not far from it, there is a modern building, of
   a cylinder shape; it is the Institute for Welding and Materials
   Testing, designed by the architect Adelina Jojica and realized
   between 1972-1973.
      The Mihai Viteazul Boulevard ends in the Nicolae Balcescu
   Square, known in the past as Lahovary. The Roman Catholic Church
   dominates this square with two impressive and slim towers. The
   company Albert Schmidt - Johann Bagyanszky built the church,
   between 1912-1919, in pure Gothic style, after the plans of the
   architect Karl Salkovics. The church impresses through its
   sliminess, symmetry, the well-balanced division of its interior;
   its gigantic stained glass work creates a yellowish interior
   illumination; the five wood sculptured altars, in a typical
   Gothic style, were done by the company Ferdinand Stuflesser from
   South Tyrol.

      Because there is a very numerous Romanian population in this
   district, since 1727, a Greek Oriental Roman church was built in
   Piata Crucii, or the Square of the Cross, one of the oldest
   churches in Timisoara. The church was entirely restored in 1894;
   the representatives of the districts and the Romanian Church
   community organized a donation to which all the habitants,
   of all nationalities and confessions, of the town contributed.
   The church was blessed by the Oriental Greek bishop Ioan Metianu
   on August 27, 1894 [44].  Among of the precious ornaments of
   this church are; the Byzantine frescos, masterpiece of the arts
   professor from Arad Iulian Toader; the iconostasis and the wood
   furnishings, the works of Traian Novac from Timisoara and Felix
   Dumitrescu from Craiova [45].
   Because in the title of this chapter a name less used appears, I
   feel responsible to make a few references for the origin of the
   "Old Farms". At the end of the XVII century, when drainage works
   were done outside of the walls of the fortress Timisoara, the
   climate became agreeable, gardening developed on these places,
   and the citizens started to build small houses or cabins nearby.
   These places were called farms (the word Meier has a German
   origin and means farmer; Meirhof means farm) and were recognized
   as the town's districts in 1744. They were called Elisabetin
   (Elisabethstadt) only in 1896.