Although with the limitation of history is told by the winners, I like seeing that statues and sculptures there are in a city. It’s always intriguing to see whose memory they want to be remembered. I wonder if Nicolae Ceaușescu ever thought that his statues would stand proud across Romania, or whether he was aware of the inevitably that they would be pulled down.
Anyway, I digress. This is Carol Küttel (1818–1875), often referred to as Karl or Károly, who was a pivotal figure in the urban development of Timișoara, serving as the city’s mayor during two distinct terms from 1859 to 1861 and again from 1867 to 1872. A jurist by training, Küttel is widely celebrated for his role in modernising the city’s infrastructure, most notably for initiating the establishment of the horse-drawn tram system in 1869, making Timișoara one of the first cities in the world to adopt this form of public transport. His administration was also instrumental in the decision to construct the city’s theatre, a move that furthered Timișoara’s reputation as a “Little Vienna” and a cultural hub within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
This statue of him was unveiled in 1999, but I’m quite focused on his horse-drawn tram escapades. Although this was the first city in what is now Romania to get them, they were only just ahead of the Romanian city of Arad, which isn’t far away at all. It was one of the earliest in the world to have trams and I like the innovators who must have been very much ahead of the game here. And, the city still has trams, unlike those places which got in early and then got rid of them far too early.