Târgu Mureș

The centre of Târgu Mureș was rebuilt in the years before the First World War, when the city commissioned a pair of buildings in the Hungarian Secession style that still define it: the town hall with its tower, and next to it the Palace of Culture, finished in 1913. The palace is the reason to come. Its concert hall has an organ and a decorated ceiling, and upstairs the Hall of Mirrors is lined with stained-glass windows depicting Székely ballads and folk tales, made by the Budapest workshop of Miksa Róth, with mirrors set opposite so the panels multiply along the room. Elsewhere in the building are the art museum and further decorated interiors. The old citadel above the centre, a seven-bastion fortress rebuilt in the seventeenth century, has been restored and opened as a public space, and the Teleki library nearby holds an eighteenth-century collection open to visitors.

History

The town is first recorded in 1332 as Novum Forum Siculorum, the New Székely Market, and the Franciscans built the Gothic Fortress Church around that time. Sigismund granted it the right to hold fairs in 1405, Matthias Corvinus made it a royal settlement in 1482, the Reformed College founded in 1557 is the oldest Hungarian school in Transylvania, and in 1754 it became the seat of the principality's Supreme Court of Justice (Wikipedia, Târgu Mureș).

The main sights

• The Hall of Mirrors - stained-glass folk-tale panels multiplied in facing mirrors.
• The Palace of Culture - Secession interiors, concert hall and art museum.
• The citadel - a restored seven-bastion fortress above the centre.
• The Teleki library - an eighteenth-century scholarly collection.

When to go

April to October. The palace runs concerts through the season and the Hall of Mirrors is best seen on a bright day when the glass is lit from outside. Winter opening is shorter. Weekdays are quiet.

What to expect

The Hall of Mirrors is sometimes closed for events, which is a real disappointment if it was the reason for the trip, so check ahead. The rest of the city beyond the two central squares is unremarkable. Museum labelling is in Romanian and Hungarian, rarely English.

Nearby

Sighișoara lies south; Cluj-Napoca is west and Bistrița north.

Key facts