Oradea, Romania

Today we rented a car and drove across the boarder to Oradea, Romania. This is a city in northwest Romania known for its art nouveau and baroque architecture. This area of Romania used to be part of Hungary prior to 1920, and the Hungarian influence is highly seen across the city. You could really see that it is autumn, as the leaves are beginning to change and fall. The kids had to throw a bunch in the air when we walked through the park.

This was a very full day of walking by a whole bunch of architecture, and we began at the Roman-Catholic Palace and Basilica. We tried to go in by the Palace, but the gates were closed. So we walked all the way around to the other side of the complex to see if that side was open. We were able to go in and see the outside of both the palace and basilica but could not go in the palace. In the basilica we could look from the door but could only see the inside from the door.

From here we walked back into town to see the other buildings. We walked past some very questionable areas right next to buildings that looked very well taken care of. It was cool to see all the different colored houses, as there were pink houses next to blue ones next to orange ones and so on. Most had contrasting trim and details.

Our first stop was to see the Moskovits palace, which is a beautiful blue building. You can’t go inside, but just stop by and admire the outside. Although these places are called palaces, I think they are just fancy buildings, and most are stores, offices or apartments nowadays.

Next is the Stern palace, which has cute floral motifs around the doorways. The Rimancozy palace is bright orange and eclectic in its design. We liked the pointy ‘cake toppers’ on the top of the building. When they say ‘palace’ I think they just mean ‘fancy building’, since this town has so many palaces!

St. Ursulines church is a cute little church that has a pale pink exterior, although it looks sort of tan in my pictures. The inside is pretty and mostly white with some smaller understated sculptures. While we were walking around we of course needed to take pictures with some of the statues that we saw, including a whole group of statue people sitting at a café table.

The Poynar house is another example of the beautiful architecture in Oradea. We passed several other buildings on the way to the Astoria hotel, and I loved the hotel’s yellow and burnt orange motif. Beside the Astoria is the Regina Maria theatre, but it is currently being renovated.

The coolest thing we did today was go to the Darvas-La Roche house, which is an Art Nouveau museum. I wasn’t sure the kids would like this, but it turned out to be very interesting. The rooms were decorated in the art nouveau style, and there was an exhibit of mirrors which we loved. The kids all picked their favorite mirror. Upstairs there was a gentleman’s room, ladies room, bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom all decorated in original type furnishings. The kids loved the double bed, and Ronin knew what the gramophone was used for!

The best part of the house was a room that played a movie that looked like it was made in an art nouveau style. It was sort of like one of those shows we’ve seen on America’s Got Talent that tells a story in a very short movie using some abstract art. We liked it so much, we watched it three times! The building had a balcony upstairs and we took a few minutes to relax and look at the view of the lovely courtyard.

From here we crossed over the bridge to the other side of the city. Our first stop was the city hall, where we paid a few dollars to climb up to the top of the tower. This was one of my favorite tower climbs we have done since you could go all the way to the tippy top and get a great 360 degree view.

We walked down the river a bit until we got to the Black Eagle Palace, which we could walk into. It looks like there used to be stores and restaurants in here, but I think this place has seen better days. Most of the shops were closed and completely empty.

We had a stop for some cake. I always mean to take pictures of our food, particularly the cakes, but somehow usually forget. This place was super cute and had great desserts too. Across the street was the Deutch house, which has a pretty heart-shaped window at the top. I absolutely love the blue buildings!

The Unirii square is in the center of the town and is surrounded by beautiful buildings and statues. We actually walked around this when we went from the City Hall to the Black Eagle Palace, but then made our way back on the opposite side when continuing our tour of the city. It was here when we got stopped by the police and told that we needed to wear masks even when outside. We had no idea, since only about a third or maybe half of the people we saw were actually wearing masks when outside. The orange-brown colored building is the Palace of Greek-Catholic Bishopric, which we couldn’t visit inside but could admire the exterior architecture.

The St Nicholas cathedral is right next to Unirii square and is a unique mustard yellow color. The inside of the cathedral is beautiful, and we took several minutes walking around and admiring the golden décor. Next to the cathedral is the Greek-Catholic high school, which is surrounded by pretty flower boxes, even in autumn. There was even a bride taking pictures!

The Moon church is also in Unirii square and is named because of the mechanism on top of the tower that shows the lunar phases. I liked the outside of the church better than the inside, which was sort of dark and dreary, although very ornate.

We walked by the Hevra Sas Orthodox Synagogue, which is supposed to be beautiful inside, but was not open when we went by. We also walked by the Neologue synagogue, which was also closed. We couldn’t get a good picture of this building from the ground, but in the views from the top of the city hall tower it is the big white building on the right side of the river.

We walked across the Podul Intelectualitor, or the Intellectuals’ Bridge, which gave a lovely view of the river. I always like walking across pedestrian bridges.

When walking from the Hevra Sas Orthodox Synagogue we passed a park with a playground and of course had to stop. There was a stand with a vendor (who looked about 14!) selling popcorn and cotton candy, and the kids really wanted some cotton candy. However, they only took cash, and we didn’t have any Romanian money. After we crossed the bridge, we saw another cotton candy stand and asked if she took cash, but she did not. The kids were noticeably sad, so the woman made them cotton candy for free. We were so thankful to her, and she made not one, but three sticks, one for each kid! Some people are so kind, especially since we don’t speak a word of Romanian!

We walked up to the top of the Ciuperca hill, which means mushroom hill in Romanian. This was a really steep walk up the road, and we had to stop several times because Willow’s legs were going to fall off. Once we got up there we had a great view of the city, and there was a restaurant where we could eat. We took our time and I kept walking outside to get the different sunset views. I couldn’t believe that people are still allowed to smoke inside restaurants here!

The kids sure do know how to work their parents. Since tomorrow is Ronin’s birthday, they asked if they could have milkshakes today to ‘get ready for his birthday celebration’. Well of course that was too good of an argument to refuse.

In our defense, the kids very rarely get to have special drinks at dinner, and everything here in Romania was super inexpensive so we felt a splurge was in order.

On our way back down to town we took the crisscross path down the hill. On google it says that this path was closed, but it must have just opened up because everything looked pretty new. There were even slides connecting the switchbacks for the kids to slide down. The views from here were great, and from here we walked back to our car and drove back to Debrecen. I’m glad we got to visit Romania and see all the art nouveau architecture.