The arcaded courtyard
Baroque arches and a café in shade.
Țetcu Mircea Rareș — CC BY-SA 3.0 ro · Nicolae Grigorescu — Public domain · Nicolae Grigorescu — Public domain · Nicolae Grigorescu — Public domain
Transylvania's finest Baroque palace holding Cluj's finest art collection: Bánffy Palace on Union Square (1785), with its carved facade and arcaded courtyard, was built for the province's governor Count Bánffy by the German architect Blaumann and hosted Emperor Franz Joseph — today the art museum fills its grand rooms beneath ornate ceilings. The collection is chiefly Romanian: Grigorescu, Aman, Luchian, Pallady and the modern Cluj school, with furniture and silver from Transylvanian manors and an icon hall. Temporary shows on the ground floor present Cluj's contemporary artists — a city now among Eastern Europe's leading contemporary art centres. The inner courtyard is free with a café, and the visit is a fitting hour between the square's cafés and the church.
Baroque arches and a café in shade.
Contemporary art from a city turned European centre.
Piața Unirii 30, Cluj-Napoca
St Michael's ChurchThe heart of Cluj and Transylvania's second-largest Gothic church: St Michael's 1 minute walk4.7
The Memorandum MonumentA memorial in Cluj to the Memorandists, a group of Romanian leaders in Transylva2 minutes walk4.5
The Capitoline Wolf Statue, ClujA copy of the Roman Capitoline Wolf — the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus — 2 minutes walk4.5
The Matthias Corvinus HouseA fifteenth-century stone house in a narrow lane near Union Square, where **Matt2 minutes walk4.8
The Transfiguration CathedralThe Transfiguration Cathedral is a Baroque building of the mid-eighteenth centur3 minutes walk4.7A generation of painters from Cluj's art university after 2000 — Adrian Ghenie and peers — whose works sell for millions at world auctions.