Cluj-Napoca

County	Cluj County
Status	County capital
Mayor	Emil Boc, Democratic Party, since 2004
Area	179.5 km²
Population (2002)	318,027 (2006 est.: 342,112)[citation needed]
Density	1771 inh/km²
Geographical coordinates	46°46′48″N, 23°33′34″E
Web site	http://www.primariaclujnapoca.ro

Bariţiu Street

Cluj-Napoca (pronunciation in Romanian: /'kluʒ na'poka/; Medieval Latin: Castrum Clus / Claudiopolis; German: Klausenburg; Hungarian: Kolozsvár) is a city in northwestern Romania and the seat of Cluj County. The city, one of the most important academic, cultural and industrial centers in the country, is located in the historic province of Transylvania and is approximately 330 km northwest of Bucharest, in the Someşul Mic Valley.

Etymology

The name Cluj derives from Castrum Clus, first used in the 12th century to designate the city's medieval citadel. The word Clus means "closed" in Latin, and is related to the hills that surround the city. Another probable theory derives the name from German, either from the name Klaus, or from the archaic Klus (meaning mountain pass, or weir).

The city is also known by its Hungarian name Kolozsvár, as well as by its German name Klausenburg. Cluj is one of the seven medieval foritfied Saxon cities of Transylvania. The city became known by the Romanian name Cluj after becoming part of the Kingdom of Romania in 1918. The city's name was changed to Cluj-Napoca in 1974 by the Romanian authorities.

History

I. Maniu Street: Construction of this symmetrical street was undertaken during the 19th century

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.

In the 10th century, the region was settled the Magyars (Hungarians) and became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. King Stephen V of Hungary encouraged the Transylvanian Saxons to colonize near the Roman ruins of Napoca in 1272. Their settlement received the German name Klausenburg, from the old word Klause meaning "mountain pass."

In 1270 Cluj was given town privileges by Stephen V and began to grow quickly. The Saint Michael Church was built during the reign of 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 office of the chief judge should be alternating between Hungarians and Saxons.

In 1541 Cluj became part of the independent Principality of Transylvania after the Ottoman Turks occupied most of the Kingdom of Hungary. Although Alba Iulia was the political capital for the princes of Transylvania, Cluj was the main cultural and religious center for the principality. Prince Istvan Batory 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,^{[citation needed]}. The remaining were assimilated to Hungarians, and the city became a center for Hungarian nobility and intellectuals. With the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, Cluj became part of the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria.

The first Hungarian-language newspaper was published 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 within the Austrian Empire; the city was also the seat of the Transylvanian diets. Beginning in 1830, the city became the centre of the Hungarian national movement within 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 again integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary. During this time Cluj was the second most important city in the kingdom after Budapest, and was the seat of Kolozs County.

After World War I, Cluj became part of the Kingdom of Romania, along with the rest of Transylvania. In 1940 Cluj was returned to Hungary through the Second Vienna Award, but Hungarian forces in the city were defeated by the Soviet and Romanian armies in October 1944. Cluj was restored to Romania by the Treaty of Paris in 1947.

Cluj had 16,763 Jews in 1941. While under the Hungarian administration, the city's Jews were forced into ghettos 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. Despite facing severe sanctions from the Horthy government, many Jews escaped across the border to Romania with the assistance of Romanian peasants of neighboring villages. They were then able to flee Europe from the Black Sea port of Constanţa.

Hungarians remained the majority of the city's population until the 1960s, when for the first time in its long history, Romanians outnumbered Hungarians. According to the 1966 census, the city's population of 185,663 was composed of 56% 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 this was done to slight the Hungarian community by affirming that the ethnic Romanian community is descended from the Dacians colonized by the Romans–a fact disputed by some theories (see Origin of Romanians).

Following the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the ex-communist and ultra-nationalist politician Gheorghe Funar became mayor for 12 years. His tenure was marked by strong Romanian nationalistic and anti-Hungarian ideas. A number of public art projects were undertaken by the city with the aim of highlighting Romanian symbols of the city, most of them regarded by Hungarian ethnics as a way of obscuring the city's Hungarian ancestry. 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 within the city. However, new laws on municipal bilingualism have not been applied as the 2002 city census showed less than 20% Hungarians.

In 1994 and 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:

The most important parties at Cluj are Partidul Naţional Liberal, Partidul Democrat (ex-FSN), Partidul Social Democrat, Partidul Naţional Ţărănesc Creştin-Democrat (PNŢCD), Partidul România Mare, Uniunea Democratǎ a Maghiarilor din România, Partidul Conservator

Calvaria Church. Detail

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 the 2002 census, is:

• 252,433 Romanians (79.4%)
• 60,287 Hungarians (18.9%)
• 1% Roma, 0.23% Germans and 0.06% Jews.