Basic Tour


 

We invite you to take a walk and discover Cluj’s old history and traditions, the interesting architecture and culture and get a glimpse of this modern Transylvanian city. We will start the tour right next to the old Benedictine monastery, which was also the starting point in the city’s evolution. The birth houses of Mathias Corvinus (king of Hungary) and Stephan Bocskai (ruler of Transylvania and great promoter of the religious reformation), the old market square and the many guilds and craftsmen houses, all tell great stories about the people who used to live here centuries ago.

Right next to this silent pedestrian area, we will visit the city’s main square, with some of its most important monuments: the catholic church of St. Michael (the second largest Gothic building between Vienna and Istanbul), the statue of Mathias Corvinus, the unique mirror street (where all houses were built symmetric on both sides of the street) and the majestic Baroque palace of the Bannfy family.

Departing from the main square, we will walk to the headquarters of the Babeş-Bolyai University, with an ongoing tradition since the 16th century. Nowadays it is one of Europe’s largest multicultural universities, with almost 60.000 students. Crossing through several palaces which host different faculties and administrative buildings of the university, we will reach the former Franciscan monastery, famous both for its architecture and its almost perfect acoustics. The church was restored in the past couple of years and the beauty of this superb monument was brought back to light.

Just behind this monument, we will visit the only medieval tower still standing, a reminder of the city’s past military ambitions.

Our tour will end with the visit of the former lumberjack market which used to be a gathering place of the Romanian community. At the end of the 19th century, the famous Viennese company “Helmer und Fellner” were given the task to build the city’s theater and opera house. Nowadays, it is one of Cluj’s most important cultural institutions. On the other side of the square, we will discover the Orthodox cathedral. Built after the First World War in neo-Byzantine and neo-Romanian style, it is one of the important pieces in this colored but tolerant, multicultural and multiethnic mosaic.