Тыргу-Муреш: История и названия города в Трансильвании

City in Mureș County, Romania

Târgu Mureș (,/t//ɜːr//ɡ//uː// /'/m//ʊər//ɛ//ʃ//, /,/t//ɪər// /, ; Marosvásárhely ; German: Neumarkt am Mieresch) is the seat of Mureș County in the historical region of Transylvania, Romania. It is the 16th largest city in Romania, with 116,033 inhabitants as of the 2021 census. It lies on the Mureș River, the second longest river in Romania (after the Danube).

The current Romanian name of the city, Târgu Mureș, is the equivalent of the Hungarian Marosvásárhely, both meaning "market on the Mureș (Maros) [River]". Târg means "market" in Romanian and vásárhely means "marketplace" in Hungarian. Local Hungarians often shorten Marosvásárhely to Vásárhely in speech. The Jesuit priest Martin Szentiványi provides the first known written reference naming the city; in his work Dissertatio Paralipomenonica Rerum Memorabilium Hungariae (written in 1699) he records the name as Asserculis by stating, in Latin, Asserculis, hoc est Szekely Vasarhely, meaning, Asserculis, here is Szekely Vasarhely. He provides the year 1230 for the reference. A second work of his, Curiosiora Et Selectiora Variarum Scientiarum Miscellanea (dated 1702) also mentions this name. Another written reference of the city was in the Papal registry in Latin as Novum Forum Siculorum in 1332, and later as Sekulvasarhel (modern Hungarian: Székelyvásárhely), meaning "market of the Székelys", in 1349. Greek traders called it "Agropolis". Another name for it was "Areopolis". In 1616, Gabriel Bethlen gave the name Marosvásárhely to the newly upgraded royal free city. The Romanian name for the city, Oșorhei was a phonetic derivation from Vásárhely while the German name for the town, Neumarkt am Mieresch (also shortened to Neumarkt or Marktstadt; in Transylvanian Saxon, Nai Mark or Nai Muark), can be translated as New Market. Other historical Romanian names for the town besides Oșorhei were Mureș Oșorhei and Târgul Mureșului; other historical Hungarian names in addition to Székelyvásárhely included Újszékelyvásár and Újvásár. After World War I, Marosvásárhely became part of Romania and was renamed Oșorheiu. The name Târgu Mureș became common in the interwar period. After World War II, the spelling of the city's name was changed to Tîrgu Mureș, following a 1953 spelling reform that replaced the letter â with î in all words. Another spelling reform in 1993 replaced the letter î with â in many words and the city's name has since been officially spelled "Târgu Mureș".

The first known recorded documentation of the city dates to 1332. It is mentioned in the papal registry under the Latin name Novum Forum Siculorum meaning New Szekler Marketplace, and under the Hungarian name Sekulvasarhel (Székelyvásárhely) meaning Szekler Marketplace in 1349. Prior to 1332 a Dominican church stood where the Fortress' Church is now sited, up until the Mongol invasion, when it was destroyed. The current Fortress' Church was built by the Franciscans in a new Gothic style around 1332. In 1405, the King of Hungary Sigismund of Luxembourg granted the city the right to organize fairs. Since 1439 the town was the scene of the sessions of the Transylvanian parliament (diet) 36 times. In 1470 King Matthias Corvinus granted the first judicial privilege to the city, and in 1482 declared the city a royal settlement. In 1492, wayvoda (prince) István Báthory strengthened a monastery with fortifications. In 1506, the troops of Pál Tomori were beaten by the Székelys who were rising against the payment of an extraordinary Ox tax imposed on them on occasion of the birth of Louis II of Hungary. In 1557, the Reformed Church College (i. e., Presbyterians) was established as the oldest Hungarian school of Transylvania. In 1571, the session of the Transylvanian parliament under prince John II Sigismund Zápolya accepted the free preaching of the word of God, including by the Unitarian Church. In 1600–1601, as a result of the siege of Giorgio Basta under the direction of Emperor Rudolf II, the fortress crumbled to ruins. In 1602, the troops of Gergely Németh put on fire the remaining houses of the town, therefore, in 1602 the reconstruction of the fortress was started on the advice of mayor Tamás Borsos, but it was actually built between 1614 and 1653. Mózes Székely the only prince of Szekler origin visited the city in 1603 when he liberated Transylvania from foreign domination. In 1616, Târgu Mureș was granted the status of a free royal city under the name of Maros Vásárhely by fejedelem (prince) Gábor Bethlen. Avram Iancu, the leader of the 1848 Romanian revolution in Transylvania, was a young lawyer in the city of Marosvásárhely before engaging in the fight for the rights of the Romanians living in Transylvania. On 4 November 1848, the Szekler troops were beaten by the Austrian imperial troops under its walls, and the city was also captured. On 13 January 1849 the troops of major Tolnay recaptured it. On 30 July 1849, Sándor Petőfi and Józef Bem set out from here for the Battle of Segesvár. Finally, the Austrian commander Karl von Urban captured the city on 2 August 1849, closing the chapter of the Revolutionary War in the city. In 1854, Szekler martyrs Károly Horváth, János Török, and Mihály Gálfi were executed on the Postarét for plotting against Austrian rule. After World War II, the communist administration of Romania conducted a policy of massive industrialization that completely re shaped the community. Between 1950 and 1968, Târgu Mureș was the center of the Magyar Autonomous Region, later renamed as Mureș Magyar Autonomous Region. On 7 September 1959, Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, Secretary General of the Romanian Workers Party, and Prime Minister Chivu Stoica visited the city. It was decided at the time where to build the fertilizer production plant, and the new residential quarters of the city. It was decided that the residential quarters would not be built in the Mureș valley, but on the surrounding hills. In March 1990, shortly after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 overthrew the communist regime, the city was the scene of violent ethnic clashes between ethnic Hungarians and ethnic Romanians. In the 21st century, the local economy started to get stronger after various investors settled in the area. In 2020, the city elected an independent candidate as mayor, Zoltán Soós, the first ethnic Hungarian to win in twenty years.

Târgu Mureș has a continental climate characterised by warm dry summers and relatively cold winters. Winter temperatures are often below Throughout the year there are 38 days with snow, and more than 60 days when the snow covers the ground. In summer, the average temperature is between and (the average for June, July and August), even though temperatures sometimes reach during this period. On average, there are 143 days with precipitation over the course of the year, most frequently in December with 16 days and the least in August, September and October with 8 rainy days. The average annual temperature for Târgu Mureș is The lowest temperature registered in the city is , recorded in 1942 and 1963. The highest temperature, , was recorded in 1936.

According to the 2021 census, Târgu Mureș had a population of 116,033, a decrease from the figure recorded at the 2011 census. The city is home to the largest urban Hungarian community in Transylvania, surpassing those of Sfântu Gheorghe, Cluj Napoca and Oradea. The 2002 census was the first to show the Hungarians as a local minority. The city is officially bilingual and both Romanian and Hungarian languages are recognised as official and used in public signage, education, justice and access to public administration; however, in case of commercial signage and advertisements, the bilingual signage is usually used only by Hungarian owned companies. Roma people make up 2.97% of the city's population, which is considerably lower than their proportion of 9.68% in Mureș County.

The Reformed Fortress Church is the oldest church in the town. According to historical evidence, less than a century had passed after the first appearance of the Franciscan order in Transylvania, Hungarian Kingdom, that the Franciscan friars arrived at Vásárhely. The building of the church took an entire century, from the middle of the 14th century until the middle of the 15th and it consisted of a monastery building, an older chapel, the church and the steeple. The church was finalized between 1400 and 1450. The church may have been originally decorated with frescos, as traces of mural paintings were found inside. The almost complete disappearance of these paintings is due to the fact that the church became the property of Protestant believers in 1557. The religious reform required for churches to have no paintings, statues or religious frescos. The existence of the Franciscan order in Vásárhely was directly affected by the religious reform which was largely spread in Transylvania during the 16th century. In 1557, the influence of the Reformed Church over the Hungarians in the town was so strong that it eventually led to the confiscation of the properties of Catholic monastic orders. Franciscan friars, who until that time had been attending the church in the fortress, were forced to leave town. They returned after nearly two centuries when the political climate had become favorable to Catholicism due to the instauration of the Habsburgs in Transylvania. They bought the land in the center of the town where they built a new church and monastery by 1777. The tower, the only part that is still standing, was added to the church's façade in 1802 by architect János Topler. In 1971 the municipality decided to demolish the monastery to create the necessary space for the construction of the National Theater and the square in front of it. A new church was built in 1972 for the Franciscans on Libertății street. At the beginning of the 18th century, one of the most representative Baroque churches of Transylvania was built in the town. St John the Baptist Church was erected in the North Eastern part of the city center and belongs to the Roman Catholic parish. The inside of the church is luxurious, with liturgical objects that are true works of art. The main altar, made in 1755 by Anton Schuchbauer and Johannes Nachtigal is of monumental dimensions and has a pseudo architectural structure. The paintings of the altars in the lateral chapels: Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary, Saint Joseph, Saint John of Nepomuc, Holy Cross belong to the same Michael Angelo Unterberger. The stained glass windows made by the Türke Company of Grottau were installed in 1898. The Great Synagogue (also known as the Big Synagogue) was built between 1899 and 1900 at the initiative of the Jewish community "Status Quo". The design of the building was drawn up by Gartner Jacob from Vienna and the construction works were coordinated by the Hungarian Pál Soós. The entire edifice is dominated by the central cupola. Each side of the central spire is decorated with a floral rosette similar to the ones on the façade. This type of window is also used several times on the lateral façades. The vast interior is richly decorated, both with shapes and color. The synagogue has 314 seats on the ground floor and 238 on the top floor. The most recent large scale remodeling of the building took place in 2000 when the walls were reinforced and the interior decoration was re done. The existence of the Unitarian faith in the town is linked to the name of Ferenc Dávid, founder of Unitarianism and the first Unitarian bishop. The political circumstances in Transylvania became favourable for Ferenc Dávid's activity as the Diet of Torda held between 1557 and 1568 granted freedom of faith to all religions in Transylvania. The Unitarianism became religio recepta together with all the other Protestant faiths. The king of the state himself, John II Sigismund Zápolya became Unitarian. The Unitarian Church was built between 1929 and 1930 next to the old Unitarian prayer house dating from 1869.

The first fortress in the town was erected in 1492 upon order of voivode Stephen Báthory, and was accomplished somewhere between 1602 and 1652 under judge Tamás Borsos. Having a pentagon plan, surrounded by a defense wall, the Citadel has seven forts, five of them bearing the names of the guild which – according to tradition – supported its maintenance: the leather dressers', the tailors', the butchers', the ironmongers', the coopers'. After the Citadel was taken over by the Austrian troops, it became the headquarters of the military garrison based in the town. In the meantime the Baroque style building was built (on the left hand side of the road in front of the entrance gate) and in the second half of the 18th century the construction works of the "barkey" were started, an addition finished in the 19th century. On the occasion of the Târgu Mureș days – which have as central point of performance the Citadel – a museum center was opened in the gate fort (erected in 1613) presenting the history of the town and of the Citadel. The Teleki Bolyai Library is a historic public library and current museum in the town. One of the richest Transylvanian collections of cultural artefacts, it was founded by the Hungarian Count Sámuel Teleki in 1802, at the time when Transylvania was part of the Habsburg monarchy, and has been open to the reading public ever since. It was among the first institutions of its kind inside the Habsburg ruled Kingdom of Hungary. It houses over 200,000 volumes, of which many are rarities, constituting a comprehensive scientific database. The book collection is divided into several smaller libraries, of which the two main donations are the original 40,000 volume Teleki Library and the 80,000 volume Bolyai Library; the rest, grouped as the Miscellaneous Collection, is made up of several private libraries, volumes previously held by religious schools and those of a Franciscan friary. Overall, the library constitutes a collection of most traditional types of Transylvanian book. The old City Hall was built in 1906–1907 after the construction plans of Márcell Komor and Dezső Jakab. The entrance area, including the corridor and the staircase leading to the first floor, is the most representative in this regard. The ribbed stellar vaults that cover this area were inspired by Gothic architecture. The vaults are supported by columns with composite caps, and the keystone is a large floral shape which includes the lighting appliance. The vaults are painted with spiraling vegetal motifs. Elements of the front hall include the stone bench with its legs shaped as those of an animal and with wing shaped handles. Its shell shaped, golden back has a shield flanked by two volutes on its upper side. Features of the monumental staircase leading to the first floor include the upper side of the banister resembling a slithering animal or a wave. The exterior decoration is simpler and is based on Hungarian Székely folk motives made of polychromatic ceramics. The ground floor is marked by a solid, embossed pedestal. Windows with large openings tend to be predominant in the façade. The three semicircular windows in the middle area of the façade are those of the honor hall that has a double elevation with respect to the other rooms. The glass paintings which illustrated Gábor Bethlen, Francis II Rákóczi, Lajos Kossuth, Ferenc Deák and Franz Joseph I of Austria are missing from the halls. The Palace of Culture is a remarkable construction in the city center. It was built upon initiative of the mayor of the town, György Bernády. Building works started in the spring of 1911. They contributed to the establishment of the distinctively flavored Hungarian Art Nouveau school in Transylvania by their works in Deva and Oradea. The plan is an irregular rectangle, with protuberances on the sides and at the extremities. The building has five floors: a tall ground floor, a mezzanine and three floors differentiated by the use of various construction materials. The façades are characterized by bi dimensionality and by a liniar rectangular style, with only a few curvilinear elements: the six bow windows covered by semi caps above the main portal and the circular balconies on the edges. The main entrance is in the middle of the façade on Enescu street and is made up of four massive doors, protected by an architectural element made of glass and with an iron framing. This element, as well as the doors decorated with iron floral motifs are typical for the early 20th century style. The exterior is richly decorated, with colored mosaic panels, with relieved scenes and busts of Hungarians. The mosaic on the main façade is an allegorical scene inspired by the Hungarian folklore. The cardboards were made by Nagy Sándor, a Hungarian artist, who founded with Körösföy Kriesch Aladár the School of Gödöllő. The art is characterized by bi dimensionality and vertical rhythmicalness. Most of the mosaics and stained glass windows were authored by Róth Miksa, particularly those on the side facing Square. The city skyline can be seen from Cornești Heights [in Hungarian: Somostető].

Târgu Mures is home to the Palace of Culture concert hall which is situated in the heart of the city. Weekly classical concerts are performed here by the Târgu Mureș State Philharmonic Orchestra. On the other side of the city center is the Târgu Mureș National Theater with two companies, Tompa Miklós (performances in Hungarian language) and Liviu Rebreanu (performances in Romanian language). Beside the main companies, there are also alternative underground theater companies called Yorick Studio and Teatru 74. The city was home to the Peninsula / Félsziget Festival, Romania's former biggest music festival.

Târgu Mureș is an important centre for general and higher education. The most important high schools are the Alexandru Papiu Ilarian National College, Unirea National College and the Hungarian speaking Bolyai Farkas Elméleti Líceum. The latter is a continuator of the traditions of the Schola Particula, established in Târgu Mureș in 1557, and of the Reformed College banished from Sárospatak at the beginning of the 18th century. The establishment was one of the first schools of the Reformed Church in Transylvania, was first working in the old building of the Franciscan friary in the fortress, and had Baranyai Decsi Czimor János, Tordai Ádám, Laskói Csókás Péter as teachers, as well as others. After being sacked in 1601 and 1602, the Schola was moved into another building, on the place of the present high school. For centuries it had accommodated the Reformed College and the present high school. The present aspect was acquired at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The main statue, facing Bolyai square was erected following the design of architect Baumgarten Sándor in 1908–1909, in Hungarian Secession style. Târgu Mureș also has a "School of Arts" (in Romanian Liceul de Artă; in Hungarian Művészeti Líceum) which was set up in 1949. The school offers young musicians and children interested in graphic arts the best education in the county. Along the book learning, the children attend music theory classes, musical instruments (violin, piano, violoncello, viola, double bass, flute, harp, trumpet, tube, trombone, bassoon, clarinet, oboe, horn, percussion instruments etc.) and graphic arts classes. Renowned public universities like the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology (UMFST) (founded in 1945) and University of Arts (1946) account for more than 10,000 students. Other universities are the Sapientia University (2001), a private institution of Hungarian higher education in Transylvania, and Dimitrie Cantemir University (1991).

There are several important roads that pass near the city or even through it: DN13, DN15, DN15E, and E60. The Transylvania Motorway (also known as A3), which is still under construction on some segments, passes near Târgu Mureș. Another future highway that will be connected to the city is the East West Motorway (A8) (also known as The Union Motorway), which will start in the eastern part of the country, near Iași in Moldavia, and will connect to A3 near Târgu Mureș. The contract for the design and execution of two sections of the A8 was signed in September 2023 and February 2024 respectively, while other sections of the motorway are being tendered or in various stages of planning.

Romanian main line railways are operated mainly by Căile Ferate Române (CFR). There are three railway termini in Târgu Mureș, South (southbound), Central, and North (northbound), operating both domestic and international rail services. The town is one of the main stops of the routes of MÁV: Mureș InterCity, Hargita InterCity. A tourist narrow gauge line (which formed part of an extensive narrow gauge system closed in the 1990s) to Band is operated at certain times of the year.

The city is served by Târgu Mureș Transilvania Airport, which provides both domestic and international flights. The airport was renovated in October 2005. It is the second busiest airport in Transylvania after the Cluj International Airport.

Only buses are used for public transport. The city's transport operator is SC Transport Local SA. Since 2020, there have been various modifications related to transport in Târgu Mureș, including the addition of new bus lines (three of which are exclusively used for students), the modernization of the bus fleet, and the implementation of digital ticket payment. On Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, trips are free. Additionally, students can use public transport for free with a special bus pass.

Târgu Mureș is represented in many sports, including: football, handball, basketball, futsal and volleyball. Two football teams are based in the city: CSM Târgu Mureș and ACS MSE Târgu Mureș. Historically, the city's most successful clubs are ASA Târgu Mureș and ASA 2013 Târgu Mureș. The former was dissolved in 2007, its biggest achievement being its participation in three editions of the UEFA Cup during the '70s. The latter, founded in 2008, had a relatively short existence, being dissolved in 2017, but managed to win the 2015 Romanian Super Cup. BC Mureș is the city's basketball team. It plays in the First Romanian League. In the 2012–13 season, the club reached its highest achievement yet. It was the first time in club history when BC Mureș won the regular season. Eventually they finished second after losing in the final 4–2 to CSU Asesoft Ploiești. CSU Medicina represents Târgu Mureș in the women's volleyball league. The team has been a constant presence in the top flight of Romanian volleyball in the last 15 years. Târgu Mureș is also known for its bowling team, Electromureș. The city has the 3 times national champion futsal team City'us Târgu Mureș, team who also competed in the UEFA Futsal Champions League. Romania's largest racetrack, Transilvania Motor Ring, is located near the city.

The Romanian Special Operations Forces Command is headquartered in Târgu Mureș.