Queen Mary Park (former Coronini Park), Splaiul Nistrului, Nr. 2
Queen Mary Park is the oldest park in Timisoara, originally called Coronini Park, in honor of Count Johann von Coronini-Cronberg, governor of Serbian Vojvodina and Banat Timisoara, who around 1850 ordered the arrangement of the park in English style.
Listen to the audio version.
Queen Mary Park is the oldest park in Timișoara, with an area of 45,100 m², located on the former Esplanade, the plain "non aedificandi", on which there was a ban on building outside the city walls.
It was originally named Coronini Park, in honor of Count Johann von Coronini-Cronberg, governor of Serbian Vojvodina and Banat of Timiș, who around 1850 ordered the planting of trees (oaks, yew, pines), arranging the park in the English-style for walks on alleys and wooden pavilions for orchestra music. It was known as Stadtpark in German and Városliget in Hungarian, during Socialist Romania - Youth Park, later People's Park.
In 2011 the restoration and consolidation works started, being placed in the center of the park a bust portrait of Queen Mary, made by the sculptor Aurel Gheorghe Ardeleanu in 2009, the park being called Queen Mary Park since 1919, in memory of the queen with an important role in the achievement of the Great Union of 1918.
The entrance to the park is marked by a Secession-style monumental gate, erected in 1910. The architectural elements of the park (monumental gate, enclosure wall) are solved in a plastic language that is relatively uniform with the built fronts of the buildings in the 3rd August 1919 avenue, which belong to the style of the 1900 years, with two exceptions: Haymann and Miksa (Max) Steiner palaces, in historical eclectic style .
The Apollo cinema building was erected in the park, later called Cinema Parc, today the headquarters of a private ophthalmology clinic. The former Apollo cinema was built in 1909 by architect Josef Kremmer junior and rebuilt in 1955 by architect Paul von Schuster.
Bibliography:
Mihai Opriș, Mihai Botescu, Historical Architecture from Timișoara, Tempus Publishing House, Timișoara, 2014
Listen to the audio version.
Queen Mary Park (former Coronini Park)
(...) However, since 1919, my family lived in Timişoara on the third floor of a building that was then called "Hungaria Bad". In reality, it had a public steam room.
Across the street was the "Regina Maria" park, which I used to call the "small park" to distinguish it from the "big park" behind the bridge on the Bega, from the center. I spent most of my childhood in the small park with my younger brother Ernö. Our games were the same as the other children's games (horse, hide and seek, tag, etc.). Today the children play differently: with bicycles, roller skates… From the park, a small pedestrian bridge, over an arm of Bega, led to the primary school from the "Școala Normală". It was a school for teacher training. Not far from the school was the orphanage. The children who were brought there went to the same school. We boys were also students at the "Școala Normală".
Géza Kornis, born in 1916 in Timișoara - excerpt from Memoria salvată, Volume II, coordinators Smaranda Vultur and Adrian Onică, West University of Timișoara Publishing House, 2009.
I have memories from the age of three or four, when I lived on 3 August Street, number 1, near Neptune Baths. I remember walking with my mother in the park under some big trees and there was a big box of sand there and my happiness was playing in the sand. I vaguely remember a house, I know I had a balcony and from that balcony I watched the milkman come with a cart pulled by a horse, he was very neatly dressed. Hand over the goods to the subscribers... I was screaming from the balcony to the horse ...
Stela Simon, born in 1938 in Timișoara - excerpt from the interview conducted by Mihaela Sitariu in Timișoara in 2004, The oral history and anthropology group archive, coordinated by Smaranda Vultur.
When I was little… I was a servant from the age of 14, imagine… Well there I was like a child. The first time I was a babysitter at Deutsch Zoltán. There I washed the dishes, played at home with the baby, and went to the park. This park used to be so beautiful!
Which one?
This where the Apollo cinema is, in front of the Neptune Baths is that park. I used to go there all the time. There was military music in the afternoon.
Sunday?
During the week, in the evening. Before, people would go, not only me with the child or other servants with the child, but others would also go, sit down and… There was military music. They sang and we listened. The children were playing, and us, with the rest of the girls, we were talking.
Anna Schneider, born in 1917, Őtvös / Otveşti - excerpt from the interview conducted by Antonia Komlosi in 2003 in Timişoara, The oral history and anthropology group archive, coordinated by Smaranda Vultur.
House with ivy
A memory related to an absolutely magnificent building in Timisoara is from 2 years ago when
I was walking with my sister on the Bega river bank and I saw a little cat that led us to a house on
that I hadn't noticed before. It was late and quite dark, but I remained fascinated by
the beauty and energy that the house conveyed and the first impulse was that I wanted to enter the
inside to explore it. I understood that the kitten was "of the house", that's why she led us to her, we
played with it a bit and the next day I went to see the house on the light. I still haven't managed to visit it in
inside, I've only seen some pictures, but it's on my wish list this year
Sima Larisa, Student UPT, 2023
