The Fortress and its Development from Burg to Town

      As you have read until now, after the liberation from the Turk
   occupation, a new, bigger and modern fortress was built (1722-
   1765). The old mediaeval fortress had four gates, one of which,
   called "Poarta Belgardului", or "The Belgrad Gate", had access
   into the castle, the other three leading to the big Palanca.
   One of them, called "Poarta Forforosa", or "The Forforosa Gate",
   was later named "Poarta lui Eugen", or "The Gate of Eugen"
   because that was the gate through which the Prince Eugen of
   Savoy entered the fortress after he defeated the Turks.  Today
   in the gate s place there is a house, on the Prince Eugeniu
   Street, and above of its door there is a marble placard, but,
   unfortunately, although the placard is protected by glass, this
   historical monument is not well kept and the design from the
   placard cannot be seen.

      One of the very important constructions for the fortress and
   the castle was the so called "Turnul Apei", or "The Tower of the
   Water". It was like a link between the old fortress and the
   castle, having a strategic position, the most important bastion
   of the Timisoranean fortress. Do not think about "Turnul Apei"
   as a tower for accumulation of drinking water, but a defending
   bastion surrounded by water channels, a building that was part
   of the defending system of the old fortress until the XVIII
   century. Ahmed-Pasha understood too, in 1552, the importance of
   this tower, and realized that the one who had the tower had the
   castle and the fortress, that is why this tower is represented
   on all seals of the town of Timisoara.

      The new fortress had only three gates: "Poarta Ardeleana", or
   "The Ardeleana Gate" leading to Fabric, "Poarta Vieneza", or
   "The Viennese Gate" leading to Mehala, situated very close to
   the Cadets School, today the New Clinics Hospital, and the third
   leading to Josefin, named "Poarta Josefin" ,or "The Josefin
   Gate", by the fortress inhabitants.  This is the Petrovaradin
   Gate placed in front of the today theater. Because the town
   developed very quickly, the walls and the gates, furnished with
   chained-mobile bridges to deny night access into the fortress,
   became important obstacles. That is why, in the year 1892,
   through a letter, the king agreed to defortify the town. This is
   the time when the fortress demolition began with a few little
   exceptions. The town lost its fortress personality through the
   disappearance of the fortified walls and started its modern town
   development from all the points of view.