Baia Mare

Baia Mare has mined precious metals since the Middle Ages, and the town grew rich enough in the fifteenth century to build the tower that still stands on its old square: Stephen's Tower, over forty metres high, all that remains of a church otherwise lost. Around it, Piața Libertății keeps a ring of merchant and guild houses, including the Elephant House and the Butchers' Bastion nearby. In the late nineteenth century the town became the seat of an artists' colony that shaped modern Romanian and Hungarian painting, and the county art museum holds work from it. Mining has largely ended and the industrial legacy includes a very tall chimney and contaminated ground on the outskirts, which the town is slowly addressing. For most travellers Baia Mare is the practical base at the western entrance to Maramureș, an hour from the wooden churches and the Merry Cemetery.

History

Gold and silver drew miners to the area from the time of the Dacian Kingdom, and the town first appears in a document of Charles I of Hungary in 1328 as Rivulus Dominarum, the Ladies' River. Louis I of Hungary named it an important mining town in 1347, Sigismund gave it with its mines to the Hunyadi family in 1411, and the St. Stephen Cathedral, whose tower still stands, was built in the prosperous years that followed. The Reformed Church opened the Schola Rivulina here in 1547, and in the late 19th century Simon Hollósy and other young Hungarian painters back from Munich founded the Nagybánya artists' colony of plein air painting (Wikipedia, Baia Mare).

What you'll find

• Stephen's Tower - the fifteenth-century belfry on the old square.
• Piața Libertății - the ring of guild and merchant houses around the centre.
• The art museum - work from the Baia Mare painters' colony.
• The mineralogy museum - crystal specimens from the local mines.

When to go

April to October, when the Maramureș roads and villages are at their best and the square has terraces. Autumn colour on the Gutâi is excellent. Winter access to the mountain villages needs care but is possible.

Good to know

The city outside the old square is dominated by communist-era housing and the visible traces of heavy industry, and it is not attractive. Museums keep short hours and close on Mondays. Most visitors are here to sleep and drive on, which is a fair use of the place.

Nearby

The Maramureș wooden churches and Breb lie east; Săpânța and the Merry Cemetery are north.

Key facts