Timisoara

Western Romania’s largest metropolis is a veritable palimpsest of styles and cultures, touched as it is by the crafting hands of Arabic Turks, Baltic Serbs, Austro-Hungarians, Slavs, Romans and Tartars alike. At its centre lie three of the most charming public squares in Eastern Europe: Victory Square; Union Square and Liberty Square. Each hosts a harmony of baroque palaces and well-pruned gardens, pitting opulent opera houses against the onion-domes of orthodox cathedrals and the exquisite façades of fin de siècle palaces to boot; all the while honouring the city’s place at the heart of the Romanian Revolution which ignited after the Securitate’s atrocities on these very streets.

Travellers looking to explore this fascinating city would do well to ask their Timisoara tour guide about renting a bicycle to rumble over the cobbled streets of its historic kernel, or catch one of the many cultural events and performances around town, or then simply indulge in a little spot of people watching between the bubbling cafés that abound. After dark, they can join Timisoara’s resident hipster crowd that emerges in earnest from the lecture halls of the town’s Tibiscus University, eager to glug inexpensive cocktails amidst the bars that line the banks of the Bega Channel.