page_title: Târgu Mureș
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Târgu Mureș / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Buses in Marosvásárhely (1967). Română: Autobuze în centrul orașului Târgu Mureș (1967). Deutsch: Die Innenstadt von Neumarkt am Mieresch (1967). Magyar: Buszok Marosvásárhelyen (1967).
context_page_description: Târgu Mureș is the seat of Mureș County in the Transylvania, Romania. It is the 16th largest Romanian city, with 134,290 inhabitants as of the 2011 census. It lies on the Mureș river, the second longest river in Romania.
context_section_description: 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.
  In place of its Fortress' Church, the Dominican church stood until the Mongol invasion, when it was destroyed. In its place, the Franciscans started building a new Gothic-style church around 1332, which was completed in 1446.
  Since 1439 the town was the scene of the sessions of the Transylvanian parliament (diet) 36 times. In 1405, the King of Hungary Sigismund of Luxembourg granted the city the right to organize fairs. 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 its monastery with fortifications. In 1506, the troops of Pál Tomori were beaten by the Székelys 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, the fortress turned 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, it was granted the status of a free royal city under the name of Maros-Vásárhely by prince (fejedelem) Gábor Bethlen.  In 1658 Turkish and Tartarian troops invaded the city and burned it, and 3,000 people were taken into captivity. In 1661, as no one showed willingness to accept the duty of prince, under Turkish pressure Mihály Apafi was elected prince of Transylvania here. In 1662, resulting from the negligence of the Turkish military residing here, the city almost completely burnt down.
  In 1687 it was devastated by German imperial troops. In 1704, the kuruc troops of Pál Kaszás occupied the fortress, which was re-occupied by Austrian troops led by Lőrinc Pekry in 1706. On 5 April 1707 Francis II Rákóczi was raised to the chair of princes here. In 1707 the city was struck by the plague with more than 3,500 deaths. The black death renewed in 1709, 1719 and in 1738–39.
  The city received a major boost to its social and economic life when it became home to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Principality of Transylvania in 1754. In 1802, the Teleki Library founded by count Sámuel Teleki opened to the public with 40,000 volumes.
  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.
  In 1854, Szekler martyrs Károly Horváth, János Török, and Mihály Gálfi were executed on the Postarét for plotting against Austrian rule. Since 1874 a monument marks the place. In 1861, Marosvásárhely became the seat of Marosszék, in 1876 that of Maros-Torda County. In 1880 the statue of Bem was inaugurated in Roses Square, in downtown area; in 1893 the statue of Kossuth was as well. The statue of Rákóczi was also inaugurated in 1907. All three statues were demolished between 1919 in 1923, after Transylvania became part of Romania.
  The provincial appearance of the city changed greatly in the l
caption: Târgu Mureș in the 1960s
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