Oradea

Oradea grew wealthy at the turn of the twentieth century and spent the money on architecture, commissioning Hungarian architects working in the Secession manner to build banks, apartment blocks and palaces along the Crișul Repede river. The Black Eagle Palace, with its stained-glass arcade running through the block, is the emblem, and the Moskovits, Poynár, Ullmann and Stern buildings continue the sequence around Unirii and Ferdinand squares. The city fell into disrepair for decades and has since been through an unusually thorough restoration programme, with facades cleaned, colours researched and the squares repaved, so it now looks close to how it was intended. Beyond the Secession, the baroque palace and the Roman Catholic cathedral form the largest baroque ensemble in the country, and the fortress, a pentagonal Italian-style bastion complex, has been restored and opened. Thermal water underlies the whole area, feeding the Băile Felix resort nearby.

History

King Ladislaus I founded a bishopric here in the 11th century, and the Regestrum Varadinense, a record of lawsuits from 1208 to 1235, holds 711 place names and 2,500 personal names. The citadel is first mentioned in 1241, statues of Saints Stephen, Emeric and Ladislaus stood before 1372 beside an equestrian Ladislaus of 1390, and Georg von Peuerbach's Tabula Varadiensis, published in 1464, used the city's observatory as its prime meridian (Wikipedia, Oradea).

What's there

• The Black Eagle Palace - a Secession block with a glazed arcade through it.
• Unirii and Ferdinand squares - the restored Art Nouveau ensemble along the river.
• The baroque palace and cathedral - the largest baroque complex in Romania.
• The pentagonal fortress - restored bastions and courtyards near the centre.

When to go

April to October for terrace weather; the centre is at its best on spring and early autumn evenings. Summer brings festivals in the squares. Winter is grey but the restored facades are floodlit and the thermal baths nearby are more appealing then.

Good to know

Beyond the restored core the city is ordinary and the outskirts unattractive. Museum opening is inconsistent and several sites close on Mondays. The Black Eagle arcade contains shops and cafés rather than an exhibition, which surprises some. Two days is plenty.

Nearby

Băile Felix thermal resort is minutes south; Bears' Cave and the Apuseni lie east.

Key facts