Cluj Napoca, multi-ethnic capital of Transylvania 

The Jewish, Romanian, Hungarian and German heritages have left their marks in this beautiful city that overflows with vitality, good energy and history in its pores, people and streets, leaving no one indifferent and offering a wide range of suggestive and great attractions. 

by Ricardo Angoso

 Kolozsvár for Hungarians, Klausenburg for Germans and Cluj Napoca for Romanians, is the capital of the Transylvania historic located in the heart of Central Europe or Mitteleuropa, in its German meaning. Three names for a history plagued by misfortunes, wars, massacres, massacres, betrayals and conflicts. But Cluj Napoca, capital of a multi-ethnic and multicultural Transylvania, is much more than all that and since the fall of the communist regime in 1989, it has undergone a profound and rapid transformation, especially after Romania's entry into the European Union (EU). ), in 2007.

Cluj Napoca is a fascinating city, open in every sense and interesting, one of the doors to these turbulent Balkans but with an identity and idiosyncrasy that is undeniably Central European in its architecture and its form of organization. This city is a border crossing, perhaps, between East and West. The Romans, Hungarians and Romanians have passed through here. Also the German settlers of the Middle Ages and the Sephardic Jews who arrived after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. Later, in this process of ethnic-cultural symbiosis, the Ashkenazi Jews from Central Europe would arrive. However, despite these migrations, Transylvania has always represented the centuries-old rivalry between Magyars and Romanians; both looking for their living space and always trying to conquer more lands at the opponent's expense. Cluj Napoca, with its diverse and varied architecture, is the result of these conflicts, of that mixture of cultures between East and West and a sort of varied and diverse melting pot of them.

 

And it is inevitable, when one refers to the city of Cluj Napoca, to speak of the Hungarian king Mátyas Corvinus, who, commanding the Black Army, kept the kingdom of Hungary, including Cluj Napoca, intact and immune from foreign aggression. Although he lived only 32 years (1458-90), Corvinus left his signature on the city: he built the beautiful St. Michael's Cathedral in just three years, just before his death. The Catholic temple, with Latin and Magyar inscriptions inside, is one of the most beautiful examples of Gothic that can be found in Transylvania and the largest church in the region. But that is history and today Cluj Napoca is a vibrant city full of terraces, bars, restaurants, hotels and suggestive possibilities for all tastes, prices and audiences. Here we present some of the must-see places that should not be missed on a trip to this city.

The former residence of Mátyas Corvinus. In Cluj we can visit the birthplace and former residence of Mátyas Corvinus, in the historic center, where you can see his library and the large rooms in which this legendary character lived today, not much claimed by Romanians and forgotten by Hungarians. Corvinus was born there on February 23, 1440, the son of the leading Romanian vajdova of the time, Iancu of Hunedoara, and having received a noble education in Transylvania at the time. The house, which was a gloomy hospital in the XNUMXth century, was restored at the beginning of the XNUMXth century and is a beautiful example of Transylvanian Gothic.

The city's Art Museum. The building that houses the Art Museum dates back to the Habsburg era (1700-1918) in the region, an old construction that was built between the years 1774-1785 by the German architect Johann Eberhardt Blaumann from Sibiu for the family of the Hungarian nobleman. Banffy Gyorgy. Inside the museum we can find beautiful carpets, icons, weapons of the time and a good representation of the art of this period, perhaps a kind of Renaissance in the region but with undeniably Magyar and, I would dare say, also Viennese characteristics.  

 

Old city fortifications. From the Baroque era, in the 1712th century, we have the remains of the fortifications of the old castle and considered by experts to be the oldest secular monument of this type of art. Located in a strategic location, very close to the imposing Transilvania hotel complex (formerly Belvedere), they were built between 1735 and XNUMX with a defensive purpose in the face of the difficult political-military situation that the region was experiencing. 

Babes-Bolyai University. In an attempt to Magyarize the region, the Babes-Bolyai University was created in 1872, a fact seen by the Hungarians as an advance in their educational system and by the Romanians as another element of the political and cultural domination that they sought to impose from Budapest. . Cluj Napoca was one of the great capitals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The University has given numerous important professionals to Romania and Hungary, some of the caliber of the famous Hungarian writer Edmund Bordeaux Székely. In 1918, as soon as Transylvania passed into Romanian hands, teaching in the Hungarian language was outlawed; In the same way, in 1940, upon returning under Hungarian control after the Vienna Arbitration, the Hungarians closed the classrooms to the Romanian language. Until 1945, when it came back under the control of Bucharest after the Soviet occupation of the region, Romanian would not be heard again in the classrooms of the Babes-Bolyai University. Regarding the building, it should be noted that the University grew with new annex buildings, nearby residences and dependent centers very close to what was the first large university complex. For example, between 1899-1903, and following the instructions of the architect Carol Meixner, a new building was built for the University, given that the original one had become very limited due to the rapid demographic growth of Cluj and the prestige of which enjoyed the center in the rest of the Empire.

Plaza de la Unidad and its surroundings. From the 19th century, as dictated by the canons of the time, are most of the neoclassical buildings that we can see around Plaza de la Libertad, the authentic center from where all the major streets and avenues of the city emerge, as well as as the epicenter where all travelers and tourists come to what deserves to be called, without a doubt, the cultural and historical capital of Transylvania. One of these buildings, in the middle of the square, is the legendary and still open Continental Hotel, a construction that reveals the size that this emblematic city once had and that today appears abandoned and dilapidated due to the unfortunate times it has had to endure. A highly recommended place for those travelers who are looking for some shadow of the glorious past that is gone and perhaps will never return on their trip to Transylvania.

 

The Central University Library. It is an impressive 1900s style building with Viennese influence that houses an important collection of more than 3.500.000 volumes of all genres and styles. In the surroundings of this place, we must highlight the Palace of Justice, in the heart of the city; the statue of Mathias Corvinus, next to the Catholic cathedral, erected in 1902 by the Hungarian sculptor János Fadrusz; and, finally, the “Viennese” Magyar National Theatre, built between 1909-1910 for theatrical works in the Magyar language following the instructions and plans of the architects Markus Géza and Spiegel Frigyes, indisputably Magyar and German names and surnames, respectively.

National Theater and Romanian Opera. Both institutions, in the heart of the city, occupied imposing buildings with a Viennese flavor. The two institutions were opened in 1919, just one year after the city was taken by Romanian troops and Transylvania was awarded to Romania after the implosion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the same way, a year later, in 1920, the work for the opening of the Botanical Garden of the University by Professor Alexandru Borza and the Speleological Institute by Professor Emil Racovita was completed. 

The great Orthodox Cathedral. This place, built in Victory Square, is a religious temple much larger than the Catholic one, that of the Hungarians, and located in the historic center of what was the great Magyar city to which the peasants did not previously have access. Romanians. It was built between 1923-1933 in a style considered neo-Byzantine.

The sculpture of Romulus and Remus, gift from Mussolini. As an anecdote, just highlight the gift that the city of Rome gave to Cluj Napoca: a small sculpture of Romulus and Remus with the wolf that suckled them, emblem and shield of the capital of Italy. The present, donated by Mussolini in 1921, was delivered to the Cluj authorities by a delegation of Italian teachers and students who came to the Romanian city for tourist reasons. But there were also political objectives in these “cultural exchanges”: Italy intended to claim the Balkan territories as its own against the hegemonic pretensions of its supposed German ally. For fascist Italy, its “living space” was the Balkans. Then the shipwreck of Albania would come and the harsh reality would demonstrate the weakness of the Italian fascist project.

Cluj Napoca Synagogue. Thousands of Jews from all over Transylvania were sent to the death camps, following the same tragic fate as thousands of others from neighboring countries and joining the immense lists of the Shoah (Holocaust). In Cluj, according to well-documented sources, some 16.000 Jews – almost 80% of the population – lived during the war in the ghetto imposed by the Hungarian collaborationist authorities, while the flight of some 4.000 Jews from the city during the four years is documented. years that the Vienna Arbitration lasted. Most of these Jews emigrated to Romania, Bulgaria and Palestine. The other 16.000 from the ghetto, like the rest of the region, were sent to various concentration camps where they would suffer a fatal fate. Only 8% would return, according to well-documented Romanian sources. The Jewish temple is located on Horea Street and was built between 1886 and 1887, according to the plans of the Jew Isidor Hegner. The synagogue was damaged after attacks by the Romanian Iron Guard on September 13, 1927, and was later rebuilt by the Romanian government. Today it is the only one that is still active in the city; It is the last glimpse of a Jewish life that agonizes between oblivion and the silence of the victims who no longer even have a name because they were condemned to collective anonymity. 

Transylvania Museum. Architecturally, the flagship of the communist period is the Transylvania Museum, where archaeological elements are displayed that supposedly demonstrate the antiquity of the Romanian people until the time of the Dacians and the Romans. The complex, a display of propaganda and quasi-comic arguments, as one that revealed the eternal friendship between the Romans and Dacians, was a must-visit place for all Romanian schoolchildren and long-suffering Western tourists who had the courage to come to Romania. in the communist era. Now, it seems, it has opened with identical purposes, as if time had not passed in vain or as if it had stopped forever in Transylvania.

The Central Cemetery. This large cemetery, known as Hajongard, and located on the central Avram Iancu Street, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Transylvania. Founded in the 14th century, the place brings together Jews, Orthodox, Catholics and other religions, in an unusual and almost unique case. It is one of the most picturesque places in the city and has an area of ​​approximately XNUMX hectares.