a beautiful town with superb surroundings  

by Robert Viorel Ionascu

Bearing a resounding name, Cluj-Napoca is a town like a poem. Just as Napoleon told his soldiers at the conquest of Egypt, that century-old history is watching them from atop the Pyramids, so the Citadel offers a bird’s eye view of two millennia of history and beauty, balance and warmth, tradition and youth.

In 1965, Miguel Angel Asturias, the celebrated Spanish poet, referring to Cluj-Napoca, put it very lyrically: "Cluj is a harmonious town, a new Folorence, an ancient coin fashioned like a jewel. Its multi-store many-windowed houses are a source of merriment. A town popping its face at every window is basically feminine, curious, yet welcoming." Let me launch an invitation: feel free to verify this perceptive and affectionate description, step by step. And let me assure you that you will not be disappointed. Rather the contrary. 

Why? Because, with a history of two millennia, the town breathes civilization and intellectuality through its very pore. The city is conspicuously bivalent. On the one hand, there is an elegant balancing of the Baroque, the Brancoveanu and the Gothic styles of buildings and churches, and on the other, there is the youthful ambience lend by the presence of 100,000 students in the 10 universities and of still more high-school pupils.

Ptolemy, the historian, coined the name – "Northern Florence" – for the city. As for its origins, they can be traced back to the Paleolithic. The city was first mentioned in an official record, in the year 107. NAPOCA – the ancient name of the settlement – is of Thracian and Scythian origin, meaning a damp and forested place. 

Emperor Hadrian upgrades it to a municipium. In 1173, the county is founded. In 1213, it is recorded as a "castrum Clus" in some documents, perpetuating the idea of an "enclosed area". In 1316, King Carol Robert of Anjou names it civitas clausensis and ranks it a free town. In 1405, by which year the city had spread to over 45 acres, Sigismund of Luxembourg grants it the right to build defence works. Turnul Croitorilor ( The Tailor’s Tower ) dates back then. In 1580, the academic activity was initiated in the Franciscan monastery ( today’s Reformed Church ), which ran an academic college with three faculties. 

Mihai Viteazul referred to Cluj as to "our town" and meant to organize the very first Assembly ( Dieta ) here-an intention that didn’t materialize. In 1776, the Piarist College was founded with four faculties. The college boasts the enrollment of the first Romanian teacher, M.D. Ioan Molnar Piuariu, ans students such as Avram Iancu , Princekin of the Mountains. In 1848, the Assembly( Dieta ) of Cluj, defying the will of the ( Romanians ) majority, voted the union of Transylvania to Hungary. In 1894, in the Reduta buiding ( the Ethnographic Museum now ) was held the trial for addressing Franz-Joseph a memorandum demanding rights for the Romanian population of Transylvania.

After this incursion into history, a stroll about the city will provide all the arguments for an enthusiastic description.

• The CONTINENTAL HOTEL – a building listed in the patrimony – was erected in a beautifully eclectic style, in 1896.

• SAINT MICHAEL’S CHURCH was build between 1350-1480, with Gothic style in full swing ( German flamboyant ). MATEI CORVIN – King of Hungary of Romanian extraction – is dedicated a MONUMENT whose artistic values qualifies it as a milestone in sculpture. It’s also worthwhile mentioning that its clay model came out the winter of the Great Prize of the Universal Exhibition of Paris, in 1896, from among 1000 competing works.

• The ART MUSEUM is located in the "Banffy" Palace, one of the largest and most impressive Baroque monuments in Romania. The first drugstore of Cluj has been made into a one-of-a-kind museum – the CHEMIST’S MUSEUM. It’s a place where one can join alchemists in their flights of the imagination.

• "BABES-BOLYAI" UNIVERSITY is the proud recipient and preserver of five centuries of academic tradition. The assignment is carried out by the remarkable people who have been its students, some of whom stayed on as teachers, and who have made Romanian intelligentsia and talent known across the borders.

• The PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA of the Cluj is an institution boasting worldwide-acknowledged musicians. An American study has concluded that the Romanians are the most musically gifted of all people.

On the intellectual and romantic Kogalniceanu Street, we turn back in time to the 14^th Century – a trip in time occasioned by the STATUE OF SAINT GEORGE ( a replica of the statue in Prague ), the ruins of first Cluj university, and the REFORMED CHURCH in all its sobriety. We arrive at TURNUL CROITORILOR for a glimpse at the 15^th Century way of life. The STATUE OF BABA NOVAC, Mihai Viteazul’s famous general, is yet another glimpse, only at the 16^th Century this time.

Next, the exquisite Baroque building of the NATIONAL THEATRE profiles on the horizon. Opposite the Theatre, the ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL stands there tall and slender, reaching out to God. We are proud to declare that we have a national architectonic style, with elegant, ingénue and spiritualized forms, joint into a spiral of life – which I call "the spiral Romanian optimism".

We can visit a little square where the FRANCISCAN CHURCH – the first church in Cluj – testifies to the passage of time.

Across Somes River, quarded by four monumental buildings , the terrace of HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA affords sightseers a completion of the city-view. Cluj, just as any other full-fledged town, runs, besides the ones already mentioned, a splendid ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM with an open-air section illustrating and certifying the evolution and simplicity of folk art. Moreover, we have the largest BOTANICAL GARDEN in South-East Europe, a delight to the eye and a pledge to scientific rigor, both of which are equally valid for the History Museum, too.

The UNIVERSITY LIBRARY and the hospitals in Cluj are also representative for the intelligentsia featuring such names as Professor Hatieganu in medicine.

Cluj-Napoca, Romania’s fifth largest town lies in the North-West of Romania. The town developed on the main trade route, later a via romana , connecting the Roman Empire to Dacia Felix Province and its urban backbone: Apullum, Potaissa, Napoca, Porolissum.

The development of the town benefited from the access to the raw materials of the neighbouring geographical units: the Apuseni Mountains with ore deposits, wood, and livestock; the Somesan Plateau in the North – typically agricultural; the Transylvanian Plain with important salt deposits exploited as early as Dacian and Roman times, as well as deposits of methane gas discovered and drilled at the turn of the century.

Cluj-Napoca developed on the shores of the Somesul Mic River at their narrowest, between the Hills of Feleacu and Cetatuia, with some room left for defense or further expansion ( hence its Latin name Clusium-Clus, or its feudal name of Saxon-German origin-Klausenburg ). The initial nucleus, covering the Roman stronghold and the feudal fortress stages, emerged and developed on the lower terrace of the Somesul Mic River. In time, the fortress extended longitudinally, as well as appropriated some of the higher slopes to the South. With little room left for expansion, modern Cluj ( today’s Cluj-Napoca ) spread further out on the tributary valleys, particularly un the Nadas Vally, and downstream of the confluence, past the point where the river widens and flat land is available for the city’s fairly recent industry.

The town is situated at around 330-430 m altitude, yet is dominated by Feleacu Peak towering at 700 m to the South and the Lomb and Chintau Hills to the North. The Cetatuia Hill-the East end of the Somesul Mic and the Nadas confluence-slopes abruptly Southwards and separates the residential from the industrial area. The whole structure, the urban area included, lends an unmistakable identity of The Citadel ( Cetatuia ) and its components.

The varied landscape of the town is explicable by the complex underlying geological structure: clays, marls and limestone of the Eocene ( under-layer of the Hoia-Cetatuia area ), sands, concretions and grit. The recent sedimentary formations ( the pasture and terraces of the Somesul Mic River ) have followed the river and sub-air shape alteration. This particular background favored the asymmetry of the landscape – which thus facilitated differentiated urban development – ranging from slopes at angles of 30-40 % , exposed to regular land-sliding on the left of the Somesul Mic River, to terraces which extend across the Northern incline of the Feleacu Hill with slopes 5-10 %. The city has a typically highland climate with slight microclimate variations generated by its position behind Apuseni Range and the broader Westerly air-currents concentrating humid and cold air masses from the mountains. 

As a result, humidity is very high and fog is frequent, particularly during the transit seasons. On the other hand, the predominantly Westerly air-circulation and the location of industrial area in the East and North portions of the city, rank Cluj-Napoca ( the residential area ) among one of the least polluted towns in the country.

As regards hydrography, the main river of Cluj-Napoca is the Somesul Mic River – a paramount agent in shaping the city’s identity and scenery – with some lesser tributaries joining the collecting river either inside or East of the city. The lake area, anthropous in origin, lies East of Gheorgheni District with a large scenery, leisure, and fishing potential. One should add the salty hydro-mineral and sulphurous sources of the Someseni Baths, which, if fitted adequately, could qualify as mineral baths.

The development of medieval Cluj, with limited room for expansion, was confronted with the difficulty of providing green areas for its residents. Yet, this is compensated by the neighbouring forested hills: Faget-Feleac and Hoia-the city’s pair of lungs, which also function as protection, microclimate, and sightseeing agency for the city, the oak trees being the most common besides the horn-beam, elm, and linden.

MOUNTAIN WATERS

• Middle Somesul Cald – 38 km length, from Fantanele dam to Lake Tarnita’s end. Tributaries: Great Rasca. Fish: aboriginal trout and chub.

• Lower Somesul Rece – 44 km length, from the confluence with Racatau to lake Gilau’s end. Tributaries: Rasca, Caprita, Racatau. Fish: aboriginal trout, chub and gudgeon.

ALPINE AND ACCUMULATION LAKES

• Lake Tarnita – 240 acres smooth water surface, from the dam to the lake’s end. Fish: aboriginal trout, rainbow, broad snout, chub, gudgeon, minnow.

• Lake Somesul Cald – 85 acres smooth water surface, from the dam to the lake’s end. Supplied by Lake Tarnita and the Agarbici brook. Fish: aboriginal trout, rainbow, chub, broad snout, perch, gudgeon, minnow.

• Lake Gilau: 69 acres smooth water surface, from the dam to the lake’s end. Fish: aboriginal trout, rainbow, chub, crucian, barbell, broad snout.

• Somesul Mic – from the Gilau concrete bridge to Cluj-Napoca.

• Lake Sacalaia ( the pike’s lake ) – natural reservation of natural interest – 26 acres smooth water surface.

• Lake Chinteni – 15 acres smooth water surface.

• Lake Tureni - 7,5 acres smooth water surface

• Lake Floresti – 27 acres smooth water surface

• Lakes in Marasti District – Cluj-Napoca – 14 acres smooth water surface.

• Fish: aboriginal trout, chub, carp, Chinese carp, perch, pike, wells, bream, roach, barbell.