The Matthias statue
The Cluj-born king on his horse.
Țetcu Mircea Rareș — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Țetcu Mircea Rareș — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mathe janos — CC BY-SA 3.0 ro · Post of Romania — Public domain
The heart of Cluj and Transylvania's second-largest Gothic church: St Michael's has filled the centre of Union Square since the fourteenth century, its Neo-Gothic tower (1860) at eighty metres the tallest church spire in Romania. The recent great restoration returned the stone its pale colour and the interior its light. Inside is a tall, clear Gothic nave with fifteenth-century murals found under the plaster, a carved Baroque pulpit and the splendid sacristy door with Emperor Sigismund's crests. Before the church stands the huge equestrian statue of Matthias Corvinus, the Hungarian king born in Cluj, and the house of his birth is a street away. The square around it is the university city's living room: cafés, terraces, restaurants and the art museum in Bánffy Palace — start here.
The Cluj-born king on his horse.
Found under the plaster in restoration.
Piața Unirii, Cluj-Napoca
Art Museum in Bánffy PalaceTransylvania's finest Baroque palace holding Cluj's finest art collection: Bánff1 minute walk4.3
The Memorandum MonumentA memorial in Cluj to the Memorandists, a group of Romanian leaders in Transylva2 minutes walk4.5
The Matthias Corvinus HouseA fifteenth-century stone house in a narrow lane near Union Square, where **Matt2 minutes walk4.8
The Capitoline Wolf Statue, ClujA copy of the Roman Capitoline Wolf — the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus — 3 minutes walk4.5
The Transfiguration CathedralThe Transfiguration Cathedral is a Baroque building of the mid-eighteenth centur3 minutes walk4.7King of Hungary 1458-1490, born in a house a street from here; his reign was Central Europe's Renaissance golden age and his statue is Cluj's emblem.