Art Nouveau Architecture In The City Center

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Today I'd like to take you back in time and show you what the Art Nouveau architecture meant in the 20th century, in one of the most important cities of Transylvania.

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As I've mentioned in my previous post, medieval cities started to form around markets and rivers. Marosvásárhely (Romanian name Targu Mures) means Mures marketplace. Mures is the river along which the city had been formed and the marketplace is obvious. The city center was the marketplace once. There's a street parallel to the city center, called Köteles Sámuel street, where you can find the most beautiful Art Nouveau buildings.

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The street got its name from the famous Hungarian philosopher, political scientist Sámuel Köteles.

Starting from 1799, Sámuel Köteles was a teacher of political science at the Reformed College in Târgu Mureş for two decades. source

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The street is in the vicinity of the Farka Bolyai high school and it is often a hiding place for students who smoke.

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At the beginning of the 20th century, nobles, wealthy people were living here, then after communists took over, things have changed. Most of the buildings got nationalized. After the communism ended, most of the descendants started the legal process to get their ancestors property back.

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Among the notable buildings there's the Jesuit church, which was once the Church of Minorities.

Minorities built the church and convent in the mid-18th century and used them until 2000; at that time the building complex was handed over to the archdiocese due to a lack of monks. It is currently used by the Jesuit community. source

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Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my previous post, these churches are not open during the day, so visitation is not possible.

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Opposite the church there's the memorial house of Károly Molter, the Hungarian novelist, dramatist, literary critic, journalist, academic, one of the most prominent personalities of Transylvanian culture.

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Born in Óverbász (Vrbas), Vojvodina region, Molter was from an ethnic German (Danube Swabian) family, but adopted Hungarian as his language. He studied at the College of Kecskemét, and then at the University of Budapest Faculty of Philosophy in Letter (the Hungarian-German section). In 1913, he moved to Transylvania, settling down in Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureş). Between 1913 and 1945, he was a teacher in the Bolyai Gymnasium, a Reformed Church college in the city. source

It is interesting to see the memorial house so close to the school where Károly Molter spent 32 years teaching.

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The next notable building is the University Of Art, a very famous one actually, abroad as well. Many are hoping to get admission here, but there are very few places per year, only the best of the best get admitted.

The institution was established in Cluj-Napoca in 1946, under the name of the Conservatory of Music and Performing Arts, then in 1954 moved to Târgu Mureş as the István Szentgyörgyi Institute of Performing Arts, where it has been operating ever since. For a long time after the change of regime, it operated under the name of the University of Theater Arts in Târgu Mureş, and after the expansion of the training (the appearance of the fine arts, music and movement arts) it changed its name again. Since then, it has continued to operate under the name of the University of Arts in Târgu Mureş. translation source

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Next to the University of art, there's the Studio, which is smaller theater, for performing students, inaugurated in 1962. On the left, you can see the statue of István Szentgyörgyi (who's name the institute was wearing for years), the famous Hungarian actor and director, who lived between 1842 and 1931.

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Unfortunately there are buildings that would need immediate care in order to survive. Care that is not so easy to provide. These buildings are all protected and can only be restored to its original style. These works need permission first, a good architect specialized in restoration and a lot of money. It is truly an honor to own a house like this, to be able to live there, but when I think about the costs, well, not many can afford it.

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This was one of the buildings I liked the most, mainly because of those huge windows and the stylish balcony.

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And this was the other one.

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Unfortunately I did not take any photos of the front, which is unforgivable, so here is a photo from the internet.

This "palace" is known as the Béla Radó house, which must be the name of the first owner.

It's an impressive building, a palace actually that was built in Art Nouveau style.

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Another famous street of the city is the Bolyai street, which connects the city center with the Bolyai square. This building for example is a beautiful one, as far as its architectural style is concerned, but what it hurts to see is those signboards and advertisements that are ruining everything.

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Most of the spaces at the ground floor are rented by businesses, for them advertising is everything, so the overall look of the building gets second place.

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One of the most beautiful hotel of the city is the Hotel Concordia, which is known as Bányai-Papp palace situates at the corner of Roses Square with Bolyai street. This is the style you see in most of the big European cities like Vienna in Budapest.

The tenement house, built in the classicizing Neo-Baroque style, was designed by engineer Győző Nagy on behalf of the spice and iron merchant Zsigmond Papp, and was constructed by Pál Soós. The Papp Palace was completed in 1898 on the corner of the Main Square and Bolyai Street, opposite the Transylvania building. On its main façade, the Corinthian chapters of columns, cornices, the balustrade row with ornate vases, the corner tower and the framing of the window openings are all made with the classicizing Neo-Baroque ornate exterior design. In 1918, the house changed hands, and its new owner became Géza Bányai (hence the name Bányai Palace), who opened a nicely furnished butcher's shop on the ground floor. After nationalization, the building was used as offices by various companies. It was privatized in 2002. source of translation

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The hotel has an underground parking lot and on the ground floor there's the perfume shop called DM.

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This postcard was issued in 1912.

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On the other corner there's the Plaza Hotel, which has an interesting story to tell.

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As you can see, this is a luxury hotel now, with SPA and all the wealthy may need. In its previous life, the building was also a hotel, just a different kind.

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I'm not sure when the original hotel was built, but I was able to find postcards from 1900. This must be a later edition, I suppose 1910 or so. Now compare the two buildings :)


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I really liked your post because of how you talk about the architecture of the most important cities in Transylvania, a place that I cannot go to, but I can appreciate that architecture because of this post. I really liked the shapes of the hotels, churches and houses. success on your day

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The old version of the Plaza Hotel has devinetely more style than the current version.

Tha k for sharing all these pictures. You live in a beautiful place!

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If only we could make vehicles disappear while picturing urban elements...

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I suppose in a few years we'll have a software that can remove what we don't like from the photos. Real life will not have that chance.

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I didn't really visit the city, I just passed by once. BUT my first impression, crossing along the city by car, was that it is a clean city.

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It is, compared to others but you know how it is. It may not be as clean everywhere . Who knows.

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Well, yeah. I guess you're right!:d At least, my first impression was good. :D:)

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