ROMANIA : CLUJ - NAPOCA
Cluj-Napoca the seat of Cluj County in
Transylvania is one of the most important academic, cultural and
industrial centres in Romania. The district is drained by the Borsa,
Somesul Mic, Somesu Rece, and Somesu Cald tributaries of the Somes
River. Cluj-Napoca is the district capital. Machinery, metal products,
chemicals, textile and footwear industries are well represented in the
city; building materials and glass are manufactured in Turda; iron is
mined at Capusu Mic; coal mines operate at Ticu, Tamasa, Surduc, and
Cristoltel; and salt is quarried at Ocna Dejului.
The city stands on the site of an ancient Dacian settlement, Napoca,
which the Romans made a municipium. Although it was founded as a
military base, Napoca grew rapidly as civilians settled nearby. 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 Middle Ages the name of the city was Culus, as
attested in documents of 1173, but by the beginning of the 15th century
it was known as Cluj. The name Cluj - Clus as named by the local people
speaking a middle age and popular Latin language, comes from the Latin c
l u s u m, or closed, due to the fact that the place is surrounded by
protective and beautiful hills. Later, the city has also been known by
its German name, Klausenburg, and its Hungarian name, Kolozsvár.
When Austria-Hungary was created in 1867, Cluj and Transylvania were
reintegrated into the Kingdom of Hungary. During this time Cluj was the
second-largest city in the kingdom behind Budapest, and was the seat of
Kolozs County. After the First World War Cluj became part of the Kingdom
of Romania, along with the rest of Transylvania. In 1940 Cluj was
awarded to Hungary through the Vienna Award, but Hungarian forces in the
city were defeated by the Romanian and Soviet armies in October 1944.
Cluj was restored to Romania by the Treaty of Paris in 1947.
Hungarians remained the majority of the population until the 1950s.
According to the 1966 Census from the 185,663 inhabitants of the city,
56% were Romanians and 41% Hungarians. In 1974, the city was renamed
from Cluj to Cluj-Napoca. The twelve year mayorship of Gheorghe Funar
was marked by rising anti-Hungarian sentiment, and a number of public
art projects were undertaken by the city with the aim of obscuring its
Hungarian heritage.
