Oradea Things to Do

- The Republicii street is the most important street in Oradea, it is only a walking street.
In the past when I was a child , there was a tram line on this street. (It is unbeliveble)
You will find a lot of shops, restaurants, bars, pubs, souvenir shops, etc..
- unfortunetly I don't know the name of the street in Hungarian.
- every tourist who come to Oradea it's first place to visit is this street, it's so obvious

The mechanics in the tower of the moon church set in motion the sphere that is half black, half yellow so it represents the moon phases. It was build in 1793 by clockmaker Georg Rueppe and still works.I wasn't sure whether it would shift each day a little bit but since i now pass the clock regularly i 've found that it does indeed change every day slightly.
Apparently every once in a while an old man goes up to oil the mechanisme and do other maintenance work. But he has no one who wants to follow in his footsteps. So if things continue like this, the clock will eventually stop working. And it is the last remianing working moon clock in the world

Last year when i was here the fortress was not open for visitors. Well, you still can't really go inside but at the moment the place is done up as a tourist attraction. There are even signs indicating the way to the place. Yep, Oradea is dusting off big time.

The fortress is very intresting even though you can't really go inside. Part of the building is used for the school of arts and this you can best see in the court yard where many sculptures are on display. Another part of the building has recently fallen in. Not sure whether that part was also in use by the school. Most parts still have a very neglected look but work is done to make it look less forlorn. But there are little plaques that tell you what you're looking at so it tells a bit more of its story.

One can climb the earth wall and look around over a part of Oradea and of course the fortress. A huge play ground for kids of all ages...

This building i found really fantastic.... I haven't seen it yet since they've been renovating it. The front is packed up at the moment. And i can't wait to see it restored. It somehow brings tales of Grimm and Anderson to your mind when you see it.

It was constructed between 1907 and 1909. It has a glass covered arcade hidden in the middle which opens to the streets on 3 sides.

This is the biggest museum in Oradea but it is a very impressive one. I had just seen the national museum in Budapest which is a number of times bigger then this museum but i liked this one much more. Even though the top pieces were taken away just after the revolution..

For one the building is really impressive. The museum is housed in the old Bishop's palace that was build between 1719 and 1797. And inside you can only wish you had a dress of that time and descend the monumental staircase..

And then the museum itself..... I guess i was one of the very few visiters that day. I encountered only a group of 4 teenagers during my 3 hour roaming of the place. And every time i went into a room, the room attendant put on the lights for me. And when i left, the lights were turned off... Which i found a really strange experience.

There was a room with a special exhibition by a slovak artist Pavol Megyesi. And some of his work i really liked. So that was a really promising start. The rest of the first floor were pictures and objects. Nice to see but not too special. I liked the old stoves the most. I am not sure whether they've always been original to the palace als nobody around spoke enough english to answer my question..
The attic floor was dedicated to all kinds of objects that were used in the Bihor County on one side, clothing in the middel and on the other side of the palace they had mamoth skeletons... and all kind of other old natural objects, fossils and such..
On the ground floor, there was a part of the palace that was dedicated to the history of Oradea (Bihor County) from Roman times till the present day.

Last year there was talk about the church wanting the palace back. The museum is situated in this palace since 1971 and there is no building in Oradea that well suited for it as this palace. But it appears that in the last year the church and the museum have come to an agreement. I'm not sure how and what but the museum can stay in the palace.

This Orthodox church is the only one of its kind in Europe and it has the only working mechanisme in the whole world. It shows the phases of the moon hence the name 'moon church' . It was build between 1784 and 1790. Although astonishing from the outside because of the lunar indicator, the inside is very worth a visit as well. And inside you can find the history of the moon church. Unfortunately it is written down in romanian, french and german so if you don't speak those languages it offers no further explanation. And even if you do speak one of those languages.. it has been typed ages ago.. and is sometimes very hard to read. But very interesting though.

Built during the second half of the 18th century, The Broque Palace forms, toghether with the Canonical Collonade and the Roman Catholic Cathedral from nearby one of the most representative Baroque complex from Romania and Europe.
The construction began in 1762 and ended in 1777, being conducted first by the AUstrian architect Franz Anton Hillebrandt , has 3 floors and hosts nowadays the main Museum of Oradea.

This building has a very prominent position. Next to the river and right in the city centre. I just have no idea what it is. But making a guess because of all the people going in and out i would say it was the city hall or something. But i could be totally wrong of course...

Since i posted this tip i did some checking and it is indeed the city hall.

It would be really nice to climb that tower one day and have a good look around.