ARAD, a town in western Rumania, capital of the department of the same name. The population of the town in 1930 totalled It lies on the right bank of the River Mures and consists of the inner town and five suburbs. Arad is a modern built town and contains many handsome buildings, including a cathedral. It is the seat of a Greek-Orthodox bishop and possesses a Greek-Orthodox theological seminary, two training schools for teachers—one Hungarian and the other Rumanian—and a conser vatoire for music. It has a museum containing relics of the Hun garian revolution of 1848-49. One of the public squares contains a martyrs' monument, erected in memory of the 13 Hungarian generals shot here on Oct. 6, 1849, by order of the Austrian gen eral Haynau. Arad is an important railway junction and the larg est industrial and commercial centre of western Rumania. Its prin cipal industries are distilling, milling, machinery-making, leather working and saw-milling. A large trade is carried on in grain, flour, alcohol, cattle and wood. Arad was a Turkish fortress dur ing the 17th century. The new fortress, built in 1763, played a great role during the Hungarian struggle for independence in 1849. It was captured by the Hungarians on July 1, 1849, and was their headquarters during the latter part of the insurrection. Here Kossuth issued his famous proclamation (Aug. 1849), and here he handed over the supreme military and civil power to Gorgei. The fortress was recaptured shortly after Gorgei's capitulation at Vilagos.
The town of New Arad, on the opposite bank of the Mures, is practically a suburb of Arad, with which it is connected by a bridge. It was founded during the Turkish wars of the 17th cen tury, growing up round works erected by the Turks for the capture of Arad.