STRADA REGELE FERDINAND

The strada Regele Ferdinand, named after Ferdinand, King of Romania between 1914 and 1927, takes you from the city center behind the ^13th-century Franciscan Church of Cluj to the bridge over the Someşul Mic river. The two crossroads facing each other on either bank form a very harmonious whole, with, among other things, the Széki and Babos Palaces, two highlights of this architectural complex, with neo-Gothic and Secession accents, built between the ^19th and ^20th centuries.

Once across the bridge on the north bank, a flight of stairs takes you to the top of the citadel hill, with a superb view of the city and the grand Hotel Belvedere. But the area is also steeped in history: traces of Neolithic and Roman remains have been found here, a Vauban-style fortress was built here as early as 1715 to plans by the Italian architect Visconti, and the Citadel Cross(Crucea de pe Cetățuie) was erected here in 1995, in tribute to the Romanian martyrs of the 1848 revolution.

Still on the north bank, Strada Horea is not a very lively street, with few shops. It features three religious buildings. First, the synagogue and a memorial temple for the Jewish community, which commemorates the 16,700 Cluj Jews deported by the Hungarian government to Nazi Germany. Further on stand the Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas (neo-Romanesque, ^20th century) and the Reformed Church, known as Peste Apă ("across the water"), with its pointed bell tower (^20th century).