TREASURES BENEATH CETATUII HILL

For more then 100 years, the statue of the Hungarian King of Romanian birth mounted on a horse has been the meeting place for the residents of Cluj.We are in the Unirii Square, following the trail of over 200 years of history.
Neolithic ruins lie beneath the cobblestone.Above them lie Roman walls and objects from the time whem Emperor Hadrian named Cluj “Municipium Aelium Hadrianum Napoca”.The withdrawal of Emperor Aurelianus meant the decay of the city, destroyed later by migrations during the early Dark Ages.Cluj was later reborn and, in 1176, was first mentioned in documents as “Castrum Clus”.
The construction of the city’s first cathedral began in 1350.It was a catholic cathedral, dedicated to Saint Michael.After building a 24 meter altar, the works continued until 1487.The initial decorations dissapeared, but a recent restauration of the walls unveiled fragments of delicate paintings m from the 14th and 15th centuries.
In the chapel of the tower , another 15th century fresco , “Golgotha”, survived,The gates holds King Sigismund’s coat of arms.The cathedral , one of the oldest Gothic buildings in Transylvania , towers of the Unirii Square , which used to be the “heart” of the city.

A historic drugstore and the “mirror street”
On the northern side of Unirii Square , at the meeting point of King Ferdinand Boulevard , stands the building that hosted the first drugstore in Cluj.Set up in 1572, it belonged to the city until 1752 ,when it was rented out to a private pharmacist.It was open until 1949 and later it was included in the Transylvanian National History Museum.
CITY CENTRAL

The building now host a collection covering the history of pharmaceutics , with drugstore tools from all over Transilvanya.The rooms kept their original destination:storage room, lab, office.On the ceiling of the last ,visitors can still admire frescos with pharmaceutical symbols fron the 18th century.
Also built in the 18th century is the palace that is home to the National Art Museum.Built between 1774 and 1785 by architect Johann Eberhard Blaumann and by orders of Governor Gyorgy Barnnfy ,this building best represents Transilvanian baroque.
A professional restoration,finished in 1996 , gave the palace its original appearance.Visitors can currently admire there collections of Transylvanian art , including the 16th century Jimbor altar , anonymus pieces from the 13th and 14th centuries and work of painters Ioan Andreescu, Constantin David Rosenthal, Theodor Aman .
Two other notable buildings stand nearby: the Palaces of the Roman-Catholic Status, built at the end of 19th century. The twin buildings towe over Iuliu Maniu Street , which in itself is an architectural wonder. It is also called the “Mirror Street” , because each house is identical to the one across the road, from structure to architecture details , ornaments, gates, window grating and balconies.
TAILORS BASTION –MEMORY IN TEARS

The metropolitan cathedral stands in the center of Stefan cel Mare Square.This is a Byzantine style Orthodox church built in the first years of the 20th century.The dome resembles the one at Saint Sophia
The square marks the edge of the old Cluj citadel. A few hundred meters away, visitors can find the only remnants of the Citadel’s walls and the Tailors Bastion, built by the tailors guild as an observation tower.
On February 5, 1601, the city leaders displayed there the body of Baba Novac m a captain in the army of ruler Mihai the Brave, burned alive after the defeat at Miraslau,
Today, a statue and the name of a nearby street are remembrances of the captain’s sad fate.
Another tower, of the firefighters, stands solitary a few kilometers away, on the bank of Somes River.
It was built in the 15th century to protect the old city walls , dating from the 13th century.
Baba Novac and Mihail Kogalniceanu streets bring the visitor back to Unirii Square , with a stop at the Protestant church built in a late Gothic style between 1486 and 1510, with financial support from Matei Corvin. The unrest from the Reformation prevented people from entering there for ceremonies until 1597, when Prince Bathory gave it to the Jesuits.In 1662, the leaders council decided the church would be used by Protestants, who remain in charge of it, even today.The holes made by projectiles during sieges in the 16th and 17th centuries are still visible on the northern side.

THE INN OF ROYAL TRAVELERS

The road goes further along the building of the Cluj Philharmonic Orchestra, the imposing Babes-Bolyai Univerisity building and leads to University Street and the Piarist Church , built between 1718 and 1724, in charming baroque.
Crossing Unirii Square, the visitor can walk down Corvin Street to see Cluj’s oldest laic building :the Matei Corvin Memorial House, a gothic building dating back to the 14th century.In spite of its name, the building didn’t belong to Corvin’s family.It was an inn where the king’s mother , Erzsebeth Szilagyi , lived and where Matei Corvin was born and lived his first months.
Museum Square got its name from the nearby Transylvanian History Museum.Set up in 1859 by the Transylvanian Museum Society and functioning in the current headquarters since 1932, the institution presents a broad history of Transylvania.
The collections include a lapidary with Roman and medieval engraved stones and a treasure of about 4,000 pieces of gold and silver jewelry , harnesses, clothing accessories, coins and medals.
The Franciscan Church Most likely built around 1260-1290 on the ruins of an older church destroyed by Tatars , was designed in late Romanic style with Gothic elements.
Close to the church, a Benedictine monastery financed by Iancu of Hunedoara was built.During the Reformation, the Benedictine monks were chased away.Today, the building hosts a high school for music students.
On the other bank of Somes River , Cetatuii Hill owes its name to the Austrian stronghold built there.
Towering over the city since it was built, in 1715, it often served as prison and has housed famous revolutionaries such as Horea, Closca and Crisan and the leaders of the 1848 revolution.
The scenery of Cetatuii Hill reveals many treasures of the city, a mixture of colour and style that makes it lively and lovable for tourists, but difficult to describe for the writer….