The most numerous documents concerning the history of the Banat area are written in both European languages and Turkish. They were written at the end of the 14 th century, before and after the Ottoman conquest. The name of the capital of the Banat area, Timişoara, is mentioned in the Chronicle by Asikpasazade in 1484, where it is written that the Turks passed by Demeskar (the spelling ‘d’ is due to the Turkish pronunciation of the Hungarian name “Temesvár” meaning ‘Timişoara’), went on and entered the Hungarian Country. After the Turks left the area, a vast programme of colonisation of the Banat area with Italians and Spaniards original from Austrian-ruled provinces was put into practice (1716-1740).

Banat; Timişoara; history; population; habitat

Presentation: oral