Cluj-Napoca
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Cluj-Napoca (pronunciation in Romanian: 'kluːʒ na'pɔka; name in Latin: Napoca; German: Klausenburg; Hungarian: Kolozsvár), the seat of Cluj county, is one of the most important academic, cultural and industrial centers in Romania. The city is located in northwestern Romania, and is approximately 330 km northwest of Bucharest, in the Someşul Mic valley. The city was officially called as Kolozsvár from about 1600 to 1918. Then the city was known as Cluj until 1974, when the name was changed to its current form.
History
Settlement at Cluj-Napoca reaches as far back as prehistoric times. After the Roman Empire conquered Dacia in the beginning of the 2nd century, Trajan established a legion base known as Napoca. Hadrian raised Napoca to the status of a municipium, naming it Municipium Aelium Hadrianum Napoca. The locality was later raised to the status of a colonia, probably during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Napoca became a provincial capital of Provincia Porolissensis and the seat of a procurator. However, during the Migrations Period Napoca was overrun and destroyed.
King Stephen V of Hungary encouraged the Transylvanian Saxons to colonize near the Roman city of Napoca in 1272. Their settlement received the German name Klausenburg, from the old word Klause meaning "mountain pass." It has been suggested that the Romanian name Cluj may be derived from Klause as well, or from the Latin name Castrum clus, the name by which the city first appeared in written documents, around 1170 (clusum (Lat.) = "closed", referring to the city being surrounded by hills). The city of Cluj / Klausenburg was also known as Kolozsvár by the Magyars who lived there.
In 1270 Cluj was given urban privileges by Stephen V and began to grow quickly: the Saint Michael Church was built under King Sigismund. Cluj became a free city in 1405. By this time the number of Saxon and Hungarian inhabitants was equal, and King Matthias Corvinus (born in Cluj in 1440) ordered that the chief judge should be Hungarian and Saxon in turn.
In 1541 Cluj became part of the Principality of Transylvania. Although Alba Iulia was the political capital for the princes of Transylvania, Cluj was the main cultural and religious center for the principality. Stephen Bathory founded a Jesuit academy in Cluj in 1581. Between 1545 and 1570 large numbers of Saxons left the city due to the introduction of Unitarian doctrines#redirect , while Hungary's wars with Ottoman Empire further reduced the German population. They were largely replaced with Magyars, and the city became a center for Hungarian nobility and intellectuals.
The first Hungarian newspaper appeared in Cluj in 1791, and the first Hungarian theatrical company was established in 1792. In 1798 the city was heavily damaged by a fire.
From 1790-1848 and 1861-1867, Cluj was the capital of the Grand Principality of Transylvania and the seat of the Transylvanian diets. Beginning in 1830, the city became the centre of the Hungarian national movement in the principality. During the Revolutions of 1848, Cluj was taken and garrisoned in December by Hungarians under the command of the Polish general Józef Bem.
After the Ausgleich (compromise) which created Austria-Hungary in 1867, Cluj and Transylvania were integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary. During this time Cluj was the second-largest city in the kingdom behind Budapest, and was the seat of Kolozs county.
After the First World War Cluj became part of the Kingdom of Romania, along with the rest of Transylvania. In 1940 Cluj was awarded to Hungary through the Second Vienna Award, but Hungarian forces in the city were defeated by the Romanian and Soviet armies in October 1944. Cluj was restored to Romania by the Treaty of Paris in 1947.
Cluj had 16,763 Jews in 1941. The Cluj Jews were ghettoized in 1944 under conditions of intense overcrowding and practically no facilities. Liquidation of the ghetto occurred through six deportations to Auschwitz between May and June 1944. Hungarians remained the majority of the population until the 1950s. According to the 1966 Census, of 185,663 Cluj inhabitants, 56% were Romanians and 41% Hungarians. Until 1974 the official Romanian name of the city was Cluj. It was renamed to Cluj-Napoca by the Communist government to recognize it as the site of the Roman colony Napoca. Some believe that this was done to slight the Hungarian community by suggesting that the ethnic Romanian community is descended from the Dacians colonized by the Romans–a controversial issue (see Origin of Romanians).
Soon after the democratic revolution in 1989 came the twelve-year mayorship of the ex-communist ultra-nationalist politician Gheorghe Funar. His tenure was marked by rising anti-Hungarian sentiment, and a number of public art projects were undertaken by the city with the aim of obscuring its Hungarian heritage. In June 2004 Gheorghe Funar was voted out of office, coming in third in the first round of voting. He was replaced by Emil Boc of the Democratic Party, who began working with Hungarians to restore good ethnic relations in the city.
In 1994 and in 2000, Cluj-Napoca hosted the Central European Olympiad in Informatics (CEOI). It thus made Romania not only the first country to have hosted the CEOI, but also the first country to have hosted it a second time.
The city is known in Hasidic Jewish history for the founding of the Sanz-Klausenburg dynasty.
Politics
The mayor of Cluj-Napoca is Emil Boc, the leader of the Democratic Party, ex. FSN.
The Cluj-Napoca Municipal Council, elected in the 2004 local government elections, is made up of 27 councillors, with the following party composition:
| Party | Seats | Current Council | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Justice and Truth Alliance | 9 | ||||||||||
| Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania | 6 | ||||||||||
| Social Democratic Party | 5 | ||||||||||
| Greater Romania Party | 3 | ||||||||||
| Independents | 4 | ||||||||||
Population
From the Middle Ages onwards, the city of Cluj has been a multicultural city with a diverse cultural and religious life. As of 2002 the city's population was 318,027 (ranked third in Romania after the capital Bucharest and Iaşi). The ethnic composition, according to official sources is: 252,433 Romanians (79.4%), 60,287 Hungarians (19%), 1% Roma, 0.23% Germans and 0.06% Jews.
Official Censuses show the following population dynamics:
- 60,808 in 19 December 1910; (81.6% Hungarian)
- 100,844 in 29 December 1930; (53.3% Hungarian)
- 114,984 in 1941, (87.1% Hungarian)
- 117,915 in 25 January 1948;
- 154,723 in 21 February 1956; (50.3% Hungarian)
- 185,663 in 15 March 1966; (42.2% Hungarian)
- 262,858 in 5 January 1977; (32.7% Hungarian)
- 328,602 in 7 January 1992; (22.7% Hungarian)
- 318,027 in 18 March 2002; (18.9% Hungarian)
Economy
Ursus beer is brewed here. The city is served by the Cluj-Napoca International Airport.
The IT sector is well-represented, with over 100 software companies and two universities that provide quality graduate engineers.
Here you can find shopping centers like: Metro, Cora, Selgros, Profi, Kaufland, Billa, Praktiker, Sora, Central, Plus. Soon Polus Center and Julius Mall will open their gates.
Education
Cluj-Napoca is one of the most important academic centres in Romania.Universities:
- Babeş-Bolyai University (the largest in the country with more than 43,000 students) offering 105 concentrations in Romanian, 52 in Hungarian, 13 in German and 4 in English
- Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University (more than 1,500 students)
Some important colleges: [Liceul de Informatică Tiberiu Popoviciu], Colegiul National George Baritiu, Liceul Teoretic Lucian Blaga, [Liceul Emil Racoviţă], Liceul Gheorghe Şincai, Liceul Nicolae Bălcescu, Liceul George Coşbuc, Liceul Mihai Eminescu, Liceul Onisifor Ghibu, [Báthory István Elméleti Liceum], [János Zsigmond Unitárius Kollégium], Brassai Sámuel Gimnázium, [Apáczai Csere János Elméleti Liceum]
There was another university in Cluj-Napoca, simply called University of Cluj (Romanian: Universitatea din Cluj, Hungarian: Kolozsvári Tudományegyetem), founded in 1872 by Emperor Franz Joseph I.. In 1881 this university was renamed Franz Joseph University (Ferenc József Tudományegyetem). Soon after World War I, in 1919, the university moved to Budapest, where it remained until 1921 when it moved again, this time to Szeged. In August 1940, during the Second World War, Hitler awarded the northern half of Transylvania (including Cluj-Napoca) to Hungary by the second Vienna Award (Vienna Arbitration Award or Vienna Diktat). During the Hungarian occupation of northern Transylvania, from August 1940 until 1945 the university moved to Cluj-Napoca. In 1945 it moved back to Szeged and was renamed University of Szeged, which became one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary and in Central Europe. At the same time (1940 - 1945), Universitatea din Cluj moved to Sibiu.
Modern Architecture
Cluj is one of the most important cities in Transylvania, so many firms and banks have headquarters there, some building modern tall skyscrapers and glass buildings throughout the city.
Sports Teams
Football (soccer)
- Universitatea Cluj-Napoca
- CFR Ecomax Cluj- 2005 Intertoto Cup finalists
Rugby
- Universitatea BT Agressione Cluj-Napoca
Volleyball
- Universitatea Cluj Men
- Universitatea Cluj Women
Basketball
- Universitatea BT ACSA Terapia Cluj-Napoca (women)
- BU Poli Mobitelco Cluj-Napoca (men)
Handball
- U Jolidon Cluj-Napoca (women) http://www.ujolidon.tk
- U Armatura Agronomia Cluj-Napoca (men)
Waterpolo
- Poli CSM Cluj-Napoca
Women's Soccer
- Clujeana Cluj-Napoca
Sister cities
KölnSão Paulo Be'er Sheva Pécs Zagreb Zhengzhou Chacao-Caracas Dijon and Nantes Suwon Makati Korca Cervia Columbia, East Lansing and Rockford
Some tourist attractions
Any tourist's must-see list should definitely include the following:
- the Avram Iancu Square with the Orthodox Cathedral, the National Theatre and the Avram Iancu Statue
- the Unirii Square with the Catholic Church and the Matthias Corvinus (Matei Corvin in Romanian, Hunyadi Mátyás in Hungarian) Statue
- the Universităţii Street with the Babeş-Bolyai University and the Reformed Church
- the Mihai Viteazul Square with the Mihai Viteazul Statue
- the Lucian Blaga Square with the University Library
- the Botanical Garden
- the George Baritiu Street with the Technical University
- the Cetăţuia with its wonderful panorama of the city
- the Central Park
- several museums: the Transylvanian Ethnographic Museum (including its open air section), the History Museum, the Art Museum, the Zoology Museum and the Pharmacy Museum
- "Házsongárd" Cemetery (16th century)
Gallery
See also
- Cluj-Napoca Botanical Garden
- Modern architecture in Cluj-Napoca
- Church of Saint Michael
- Bánffy Palace
- Cluj-Napoca Companies
- *Bere Ursus
- *Banca Transilvania
- *Jolidon
- *Farmec
- *Tricotaje Someşul
- *Napolact
- *Armătura
- *ArtSoft Consult
- *Astral
- *Ardaf
- *Terapia
- *Zolicar - Local and International Car Transportation
- Klausenberg (Hasidic dynasty)
External links
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