Cluj Cathedrals Tour

Due to its rich history and to the waves of nations that passed the city, Cluj came to have a wide range of religious cults and beliefs, reflected in the multitude and diversity of the halidoms.

The heart of the city is dominated by St Michael´s Cathedral built between 1349 and 1487, in the German Gothic style of the Saxons who then ruled unchallenged over the city. The imposing equestrian statue of Matyas Corvinus, found south of the cathedral, tramples the crescent banner of the Turks underfoot.

Next on our tour is the Franciscan Church. It was built after the Tatar attack in the thirteenth century and handed over to the Dominican order by Iancu de Hunedoara in 1455. The church was transferred to the Franciscans in 1725 and subsequently rebuilt in the Baroque style.

Very famous in Cluj is the central cemetery. Settled on a hill, it offers a great, relaxing and curious walk. Spectacular and simple tombs, altars and crosses, famous and less famous people´s graves, in a curious mix of vegetation, trees, candles and statues. 

One of the most beautiful churches in Cluj is the Calvinist´s Reformed church, built in 1486 – 1516 for Matyas Corvinus, with a pulpit added in 1646. Outside the church stands a copy of the statue of St George and the Dragon made in 1373 by the masters Marton and Gyorgy of Koloszvar. The church´s interior is plain Gothic stonework above the stalls and wooden panels, decorated with the coat of arms of all the leading Hungarian families of Transylvania.

The huge and startling Orthodox Cathedral, is a celebration of the Romanians´triumph in Transylvania. Although built in 1921 – 33, the cathedral looks as if it fell through a time warp from Justinian´s Constantinopole. Inside, the gold mosaic Virgin and Child in the apse, bears the heavy-handedness charcteristic of the 1950s, when Socialist Realism was the prescribed mode.

The Cock church is a beautiful Calvinist church built in 1913 by Kos Karoly who designed everything down to the light fittings, all with a cock motif simbilizing St Peter´s threefold denial of Christ before cockscrow.

We will also visit the Greco-Catholic cathedral of the Transfiguration, a Baroque pile built for the Minorites in 1775 – 79.