Timișoara și Băile Herculane în jurnalele de călătorie din 1807 și 1817 ale împăratului Francisc I al Austriei / Timișoara and Băile Herculane in the travel journals from 1807 and 1817 of Francis I, emperor of Austria
Jan. 1, 2022
Keywords:
Bega channel
Herkulesbad
Băile Herculane
Temeswar
Emperor of Austria
Francis I
Timişoara
thermal baths
View PDF
Abstract
On May 4th and 5th 1807 Emperor Francis Ist of Austria along with Archduke Charles, commander in chief of the army, visited Timișoara (Temeswar) in order to inspect the town and fortress. In our opinion, the main aim of the imperial visit was to explore the recess possibilities in case of a new war with imperial France. Similar to his uncle, the late Emperor Joseph II, Francis kept a journal (published in Appendix 1), in which he describes thoroughly, in dry words, almost as a bookkeeper, the buildings in the fortified city and the economic facilities in the suburbs.
Emperor Francis paid a second visit to the Banat in autumn 1817. This time he was accompanied by his fourth and last one wife, Caroline Augusta von Wittelsbach. During his journey of more then three and a half months (they started from Vienna on July 14th 1817), the imperial couple visited Galitia, Bucovina, Transylvania, the Banat, Slavonia and Croatia. The voyage in 1817 was rather intended as an amusement trip offered by Francis to Caroline Augusta, a late wedding gift to his new wife, than an opportunity to perceive directly the problems in the imperial provinces he went through. In 1817, exactly as in 1807, the Emperor dictated his travel journal to a close friend, state minister count Ludwig von Bombelles. At Băile Herculane (Herkulesbad) the imperial couple spent only October 2nd and 3rd. As in 1807, the journal from 1817 reporting the stay in Băile Herculane (published in Appendix 2) proves the same accurate and dry way of describing the buildings, bath facilities and relics from the Roman times.
