Târgu Mureș  

During medieval times, an important role in the evolution of the town was played by guilds, made up of groups of craftsmen. Artisan guilds had their privileges recognized since 1493. Members of the guilds took part in the building of the town fortress in 1620. Two of the most important guilds were the shoemakers and the tanners. It is noted that the shoemakers' guild, in 1800,  had the most members (254). The guild system lasted until 1872.

Its Fortress' Church today is a replacement for the Dominican church that existed until the Mongol invasion (the Mongol Invasion of Hungary in 1241–42), when it was destroyed. In its place, the Franciscans started building the new Gothic-style church around 1332. The work was completed in 1446.

 

The right of the city to organize fairs was given in 1405 by Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary.

In 1470 King Matthias Corvinus granted the first judicial privilege to the city, and in 1482 the city was declared a royal settlement.  Its monastery along with the fortifications were strengthened in 1492 by wayvoda (prince) István Báthory. In 1506, the troops of Pál Tomori were defeated by the Székelys rising against the payment of an extraordinary Ox tax imposed on them on the occasion of Louis II of Hungary's birth.  

The Reformed Church College (i.e., Presbyterians) was established  in 1557, as the oldest Hungarian school of Transylvania and in 1571, the session of the Transylvanian parliament under prince John II Sigismund Zápolya accepted the free preaching of the word of God, including the Unitarian Church. In 1600–1601 the fortress turned to ruins as a result of Giorgio Basta's siege. 

In 1602, the troops of Gergely Németh put on fire the remaining houses of the town, the reconstruction of the fortress being started on the advice of mayor Tamás Borsos, the town being actually rebuilt 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, Târgu Mureș was granted the status of a free royal city under the name of Maros-Vásárhely by prince (fejedelem) Gábor Bethlen. But in 1658 Turkish and Tartarian troops invaded the city and burned it,  3,000 people being taken in captivity. In 1661, as there was no shown willingness to accept the duty of prince, under Turkish pressure, Mihály Apafi was elected prince of Transylvania here. In 1662, result of the negligence of the Turkish military residing here, the city was almost completely burnt down. Then again, in 1687, it was devastated by German imperial troops. The year 1704 brought the kuruc troops of Pál Kaszás to the occupation of the fortress, which was re-occupied later (in 1706) by Austrian troops led by Lőrinc Pekry. On 5 April 1707 Francis II Rákóczi was raised to the chair of princes here. The same year brought here  the plague, being registered more than 3,500 deaths. The black death struck repeatedly, causing notable human loss 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 defeated by the Austrian imperial troops, the city being captured. But, on 13 January 1849 the troops of major Tolnay recaptured it, following from here the set out for the Battle of Segesvár, on 30 July 1849, led by Sándor Petőfi and Józef Bem.

In 1854, Szekler martyrs Károly Horváth, János Török, and Mihály Gálfi were executed on the Postarét for plotting against the Austrian rule. Since 1874 a monument marks the place. Then, in 1861, Marosvásárhely became the seat of Marosszék, in 1876 that of Maros-Torda County, following  the inauguration of the statue of Bem in 1880  (in Roses Square, downtown area); in 1893 the statue of Kossuth was publicly placed as well. In 1907, another statue, the one of Rákóczi, was also inaugurated. All three statues were demolished between 1919 in 1923, after Transylvania became part of Romania.

The provincial appearance of the city suffered  great changes in the late 19th century and early 20th century. In 1913, the Hungarian Art-Nouveau style city hall complex and Palace of Culture was inaugurated as part of mayor Bernády György's urban renewal. After World War I, together with the rest of Transylvania, Marosvásáshely became part of Romania and became known as Târgu Mureș. 

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As a consequence of the Second Vienna Award, from 1940 to 1944  the city was ceded back to the Kingdom of Hungary. After the German occupation of Hungary that took place  in 1944, a Jewish ghetto was established in the city and Târgu Mureș re-entered the Romanian administration in October that year. However, on 12 November 1944 General Vladislav Petrovich Vinogradov of the Soviet Red Army expelled the returning Romanian authorities from Northern Transylvania with reference to the massacres committed by members of the so-called Maniu Guard, and the Romanian authorities were not allowed to return until the government of Petru Groza was formed on 6 March 1945.

After World War II, a complete reshape of the community was brought by the communist administration of Romania which conducted a policy of massive industrialization. Between 1950 and 1968, Târgu Mureș was the center of the Magyar Autonomous Region, later renamed as Mureș-Magyar Autonomous Region. On 7 September 1959, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Secretary-General of the Romanian Workers Party, and Prime Minister Chivu Stoica visited the city, being decided at the time where to build the fertilizer production plant, and the new residential quarters of the city. It was agreed that the residential quarters would not be built in the Mureș valley, but on the surrounding hills.

Shortly after the Romanian Revolution of 1989, in March 1990, the city was the scene of violent ethnic clashes between ethnic Hungarians and ethnic Romanians.

In the 21st century, after various investors settled in the area, the local economy started to get stronger. In 2020, the city elected Zoltán Soós as mayor, an independent candidate (the first ethnic Hungarian to win in twenty years).