Cluj-Napoca

 

History

If you wander through the streets of Cluj-Napoca, a city that is home to a population of almost 300,000 inhabitants and one of the largest universities in Romania, you will notice the ruins of old fortification walls seamlessly integrated into the architecture of the city in perfect synergy. Built during the Roman occupation (101 -271 B.C. ), some of the fortress walls and towers of Cluj-Napoca, or Napocensis, by its Latin name, still surround the city as witnesses to its historic past.

A second citadel was built during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Archaeologists discovered that this second fortification, much smaller than the Roman citadel, was erected using fragments from the collapsed walls of the first fortress. A part of this medieval construction is still functional today and hosts the “Museum of Caves” in one of its defense towers.

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the city of Cluj-Napoca underwent transformations in size and economy. Under the Saxon occupation, its fortified walls were gradually expanded while the city flourished and became a commercial center for the region. Its population was made up of Saxons, Hungarians, and Romanians, many of them craftsmen who belonged to commercial guilds. During this period, defense towers and bastions were built. There were twenty towers named after each guild: tailors’ tower, tanners’ tower, shoemakers’ tower, goldsmiths’ tower, etc.

A third citadel, Cetățuia, was erected on the highest hill in Cluj-Napoca during the eighteenth century, under Habsburg rule. Much smaller in size than the other two, Cetățuia was primarily used to control and protect the city from invasions and seldom used as a prison. A few small vestiges remain of the Cetățuia citadel, mainly a tower and wall ruins. The area is now dominated by the Belvedere Hotel and has become a main point of attraction for tourists due to its history and also its position, perfect for ample views of the city.

Witness to a tormented past, the Synagogue on Horea Street, also known as The Temple of the Deportees, was built in 1866. Transformed into a warehouse under the Horthy Hungarian far-right regime and later damaged by the Nazis, the synagogue underwent several restoration projects. Ancient Jewish cemeteries lie among the green hills of Cluj-Napoca, witness to a Jewish population and its tragic past that saw the few survivors of the Shoah immigrate to Israel.

Festivals

Arts and community festivals have played an important role in popularizing art and making it more accessible to larger audiences in the Cluj region and abroad. Several of them are often bilingual (Romanian and English) or multilingual (Hungarian or German, in addition) and gather diverse local crowds and international audiences.

Hungarian Cultural Days of Cluj, a festival that brings together tradition and modernity in a multicultural setting, is a free-entry event that displays cultural artifacts as well as culinary stands, sports competitions, and community conversations on current topics such as environmental awareness, LGBTQ rights in Romania, ethnic minority rights, and social work.

New film festivals that compete for international audiences have been born in Romania during the last few decades. Among them is the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF). It is held every summer in June, in the heart of Transylvania, in Cluj-Napoca. Known for its open-air screenings, TIFF has grown in size over the years. The festival now attracts more spectators and showcases contemporary cinematographic works from all over the world. It also features music concerts, film and art workshops, and educational activities.

The success and appeal among Romanian youth of music festivals of various genres that address diverse audiences come to validate the need for a diverse cultural identity and, at the same time, a desire for openness toward transnational trends. Some of the most popular festivals in Romania include the Electric Castle Festival, held at the Banffy castle near Cluj-Napoca, showcasing electronic, alternative, and underground music and the Untold Festival in Cluj-Napoca, an electronic music festival.

The EthniCity Multicultural Festival in Cluj-Napoca 

Created in 2012, the Cluj-Napoca Multicultural Festival is an annual celebration of diversity intended to educate and promote mutual understanding. Taking place at the end of May, the festival displays cultural and educational activities that encourage intercultural dialogue, communication, and cooperation among people from different cultures designed to combat stereotypes and prejudices. Local and migrant cultural communities participate with dance performances, music, art, costumes, and food.

University Life

Known as an important university center, the Babes-Bolyai University (UBB) campus located in the heart of Cluj-Napoca offers various on-campus and off-campus cultural and recreational activities for students. Like any large university in Romania, UBB hosts a Students’ Culture House, a cultural center where students meet and organize various social and cultural activities such as art, theater, music, dance, literature, and sports. Having a privileged position in the center of the city confers the UBB campus a perpetual connection to the cultural life of the city. Student life becomes inseparable from city life with its multitude of cultural events such as festivals, concerts, and museum exhibitions, as well as sport competitions that take place throughout the year.

Learning Activities

1.Watch the 360 video of Matei Corvin square in Cluj-Napoca and identify five cultural or recreational activities that locals and visitors can do in this area. Then justify your answers by describing what motivated your choices (use the arrows to navigate the 360 video and make sure to choose high resolution in “settings”).

2.Observe the city architecture and a. make a list of elements and characteristics that might relate to historical moments and past events; b. list examples of objects, activities, persons that you have noticed in the video which help you better understand the atmosphere in the city and people’s daily rhythm. Explain your observations.

3.Based on the text and video above, choose a city that you know and draw a parallel with Cluj-Napoca. What aspects are similar and different?

4.Research the king Matei Corvin and his time period on the Internet. Write down three interesting facts about him.

 

Additional Resources

Hungarian Festival: https://transylvanianow.com/video/hungarian-cultural-days-of-kolozsvar-cluj-napoca/

Medieval Festival: https://romanialibera.ro/special/festival-medieval-la-cluj-168725/

Transilvania International Film Festival TIFF: https://tiff.ro/en 

Untold Music Festival: https://untold.com/ 

Ukrainians in Romania: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kq2dD5ChCk 

EthniCity Multicultural Festival: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL27cgOGyaBLK-Ne-zbq2MQ