The Greek-Catholic Episcopal Palace from Oradea, located in the Union Square, takes its present form in 1905. The architect of the palace was Rimanóczy
Kálmán Jr., the most important architect from the 1900- 1912 period.
Until the first decade of the 20th century another baroque-style building was in its place – the seat of the Romanian Church United with Rome. In 1778 it was added another floor, and after the fire of 1836 it was rebuilt. Between 1874 and 1875 a new wing was built on Mihai Pavel Street, and the late baroque façade was modified by master Imre János.
Bishop Demetrie Radu ordered architect Rimanóczy Kálmán Jr. the design of the present appearance of the palace. The demolition works of the old building (preserving some parts of the old one) began on 10th of August 1903, and the building was inaugurated on 11th of July 1905.
The interior
The stairs with two ramps, the massive railing and the pillars surrounding the stairs are made of pink-red Vascau marble with white veins or yellow marble. Above the stairs in the hallway there was a large glazing panel, built from stained glass decorated with vegetal elements. The light that penetrated through the beautiful stained glass colored the large hallway in different shades and shapes.
The bishop’s residence and the most important rooms were upstairs. The offices, the kitchen and the guest rooms were at the ground floor. The Great Dining Room (as it was called on the construction plans) was probably used as a Congregation Hall. The hall was made in neo-gothic style and was covered with a stellar vault decorated with vines. The whole room was painted in pastel green. The stove was made of green tiles, and the massive chandelier was also neo-gothic.
The offices on the side facing Mihai Pavel street or the Square Hall on the corner of the building, Mihai Pavel street corner with the Union Square could be accessed from the Great Dining Room. This room was decorated in a baroque, rococo styleand was covered with a hemispherical vault. The ault is decorated with vines, with pastel leaves and flowers. The Great Hall facing Union Square was the most spectacular room in the palace and also most decorated one. In the project, the Hall was named the Great Hall, decorated in eclectic style. The stucco ornaments were polychrome or golden, placed on walls and ceiling. The chandelier was massive, made in bronze, decorated with leaves and sunflowers.
At the moment, the palace is currently under a rehabilitation process after the fire of 25th of August 2018. The rehabilitation works are scheduled for a period of three years.
https://www.oradeaheritage.ro/

The Palace of the Greek-Catholic Bishopric

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The Local Council launched a competition for the design of the local administration headquarters, with the deadline for submitting the documentation by 31th of March 1896. Nine proposals were submitted, of which four were purchased: Rimanóczy Kálmán Jr., Hübner Jenó, Jaumann Benedek and Láng Adolf. The City Hall decided that Rimanóczy Kálmán Jr. should draw up a new project based on the four proposals, free of charge. The execution of the work was also awarded
to Rimanóczy. The demolition of the former residence began on 21st of October 1901, and the palace was finished in 1903.
The constructor was Sztarill Ferenc, who formerly proposed that the city hall be placed where the Eagle Inn was. The inauguration took place in January 1904, when Rimler Károly, the longest-serving Mayor in the city’s history, was the head of the city (June 1901 to June 1919).
The architectural composition is articulated around three inner courtyards, on an area of 5508 square meters.
The main façade and the one facing the river were the most spectacular ones, built in eclectic style. The semicircular shaped monumental windows, looking like symbolic triumphal arches mark the large Meeting Hall – the Hall of Honour. The four allegorical figures and the statuary group crown majestically the entire architectural composition.
The main staircase is the most spectacular architectural element of the city hall’s interiors. The imposing staircase was decorated with frescoes. The only Art Nouveau style
decoration are the waving flowers and leaves in the friezes that decorate the secondary staircase.
The tower of the City Hall
The tower of the City Hall, shorter than the one today, was also ready by the time of the inauguration of the palace. The tower was 50 meters tall and had a clock and a watch room for the city’s fireman.
The Tower is now a touristic attraction. The visitors can admire the most beautiful view of the historical center of Oradea.
The mechanism of the clock, which was called the “mother clock”, is at the first floor of the tower. The clock was installed at the highest level and is set now to sing Iancu’s March upon the hour. It was built at the beginning of the 20th century, in 1904, by a watchmaker Mezey Dezső.
The second floor is at 33.85 meters high and the third one at 40.25 meters. Several huge functional hammers were mounted on the parapet of the balcony that strike three times every quarter of an hour.
At the fourth floor there is a telescope that can be used by visitors to observe every small detail of the objectives in the central area of the city. The access to this level is limited to five people due to narrow space.
https://www.oradeaheritage.ro/

The City Hall Palace of Oradea

The Black Eagle Palace is the most spectacular secession style architectural achievement in Oradea and Transylvania.
The story of the Black Eagle Palace is linked to the new urban development vision of the city, given the reorganization of the Small Square (St. Ladislau Square), today Union Square. In 1714, on the site of the building located at the intersection of Independence street (strada Independenței) with the Square, there was a one-storey venue, called the Eagle Inn or the Town’s Beer House.
The old inn hosted most of the city’s major public events: balls, meetings, theatre shows or political events. Until 1861 it was only a small building with three rooms that accommodated the town hall. Then, in 1807 it was rebuilt, extended and it was added another floor, and after a second modification, in 1835, it became an important hotel in the city.
The architecture
In 1903 the City Hall started a design competition for the reconstruction of the Eagle Hotel. Three projects were awarded out of 13 that were submitted. The first prize was won by the project called “Champagne”, belonging to architects Jakab Dezső and Komor Marcell, but the costs of construction were too high so the project was abandoned. Kurländer Ede and Adorján Emil, two lawyers, entrepreneurs and leading journalists bought in 1906 the Eagle Hotel and the Green Tree Inn. Builder Sztarill Ferenc began the construction of the Black Eagle architectural complex on 6th of April 1907. In November 1907 the building was already covered, and it was finished in December 1908. The reception was made on 16th of November 1908, and the festive opening took place in 1909.
The building was located on two street fronts, with a high ground floor and four floors, made of two bodies connected by a glazed passage. The main façade on Union Square (Piața Unirii) is asymmetrical, consisting of two large, unequal bodies, that reveal the secession style. The glazed passage was inspired by the famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan and connected three streets. The stained glass in the centre of the passage, with a flying eagle over green hills was made after the completion of the construction (1909) in Neumann K.’s glass workshop as an emblem of the architectural complex.
All the details and symbols were paid a great attention. However, the floral curvilinear style of the Berlin secession makes some concessions to a rather eclectic vision, with neo-baroque nostalgias, highly appreciated in that time. The ornaments are mounted on all interior elements (ceilings, vaults, windows, doors, paneling, railings, walls, columns, stained glass).
A multifunctional complex
The passageway accommodated 35 shops on the ground floor of the building, towards the square. On the side where the hotel was, the ground floor towards Union Square, on the corner near the entrance was the Crown café. In the part of the building with the tower, on the right side of the passageway towards the Union Square, at the first floor was the Hungarian Bank (Magyar Bank R.T. in Hungarian, named in the interwar period the Industrial Bank), founded in 1906 as a joint stock company of which Adorján Emil was the director.
In the same part of the building, on the third floor there were flats. The wing on Independenţei Street housed at the ground floor the former restaurant and the Vigadó show and
meeting rooms. On the ground floor there was a large hall and the main staircase. Upstairs was the lounge, the Grand Hall, the Small Hall and a pastry shop. The Grand Hall opened on 7th of May 1909 and hosted many shows and concerts. It was transformed later into a cinema hall (Oradea Cinema, then Libertatea Cinema).
Vigadó Cinema was opened in 1911, in the small hall on the first floor, by Pongrácz Jenő, the director of Bonbonniere cabaret and it will be the basis of Adorján Emil’s future business. In 1920, he became the owner of one of the most prosperous business in interwar Romania, namely the Dorian Films Renting House, with national broadcasting rights for Paramount productions.
At the entrance towards Vasile Alecsandri Street was the Urania cinema, which reopened on 5th of August 1909. In the same area, on the first floor was the Dajkovits János’s photography workshop. In 1908, two well-known and appreciated painters, Tibor Ernő and Mikes Ödön, opened a painting school. In the central area was Novomeszky Imre’s pastry shop, a renowned pastry chef and chocolate maker.
The former Green Tree Inn was included in the multifunctional complex, located on Vasile Alecsandri Street no. 8-10, connected to the Black Eagle Palace through the second lower gallery of the passageway.
The venue was transformed many times; between 1908- 1919 the Grand hall hosted the Bonbonniere cabaret, nowadays the Arcadia Theater.
https://www.oradeaheritage.ro/

Black Eagle Palace

This representative building with one-storey was built at the beginning of the 20th century in the place of an old house owned by the Ioan Poynár family (Pojnar, Poinar). The old house in the heart of the city was designed for commerce, being divided to accommodate several shops: a tailoring shop, a delicatessen, a stationery and a bookstore.
The building is at the intersection between the King Ferdinand I Square and Grigorescu Street (Mészáros).
It is one of the palaces designed and built in secession style at the beginning of the 20th century, began in 1907, completed in 1911 by the famous architect Sztarill Ferenc.
The estate commissioner, Ioan Poynár, was part of the city council and director of the Oradea tobacco warehouse (state monopoly) from Oradea.
Since it was put in use, the Poynár House, as we know it today, accommodated rental and commercial premises, such as the Koch brothers’ men’s clothing store, at the mezzanine a locally produced furniture store and Kovács Gyula’s dentist practice. After World War II and
until 2004, the ground floor of the building hosted the largest bookstore in town, initially called the People’s Will Bookstore, the Pushkin Bookstore and then, Mihai Eminescu Bookstore. At present there is a pharmacy, and apartments upstairs.
https://www.oradeaheritage.ro/

The Poynár House

Initially, this building was the residence of renowned architect Rimánoczy Kálmán, Jr. Following his passing in 1912, the building was sold. After nearly a decade, in 1921, it was bought by the Ministry of Cults, which did so in order to turn it into what it is today, the Romanian Orthodox Bishopric.
By all estimates, the construction of this palace was carried out in 1903 – although there is no certain data to back this claim. The first owner of the building was, at the same time, both its architect and builder.
The architecture
The construction, done in the eclectic style, with neo-Gothic elements predominating on the façade, has two levels and is divided into 7 sections on the façade; two of them are delineated at the upper level, with columns featuring Ionic chapiters, and end at the level of the attic. The ground floor windows close off at the upper side with a circular arch, while the windows on the upper floor close off with an ogive.
The architect
Rimanóczy Kálmán Junior (1870-1912) was the most important architect of Oradea in between 1900 and 1912, also becoming renowned as an entrepreneur.
Born in 1870, in Oradea, and studying in Berlin and Budapest, Rimanóczy, Jr. made a name for himself in the landscape of the city’s architecture during the prosperous period of Art Nouveau.
His family owned multiple buildings in Oradea, among which the steam bath between Libertăţii (Liberty) Street and Iosif Vulcan Street, along with several sawmills, brick factories and furniture factories on Calea Clujului (Cluj Road).
He received numerous orders for public buildings, constructions that he fleshed out in various stylistic forms.
Some of his architectural creations in Oradea are:
The Palace of Public Finance, 1899-1900, Republicii Street no. 35;
City Hall, 1902-1903, Piața Unirii (Union Square) no. 1;
The Neuro-Psychiatry Hospital, 1902-1903, Louis Pasteur Street no. 26;
The Pentecost Roman-Catholic Church, 1903-1905, Dunărea (Danube) Street no. 1;
The Rimanóczy K. Junior Palace, cca. 1903, Roman Ciorogariu Street no. 3 (the Residence of the Orthodox Bishopric starting from 1921);
The Palace of the Greek-Catholic Bishopric, 1903-1905, Union Square no. 3;
Moskovits Miksa Palace, 1904-1905, Republicii Street next to Traian (Trajan) Park no. 2;
The Rimanóczy Kalman. Sr. Palace, 1905, Republicii Street next to Trajan Park no. 1;
The former Central Savings Bank of Oradea, 1906-1907, expanded in 1912, Piața Regele Ferdinand (King Ferdinand Square) no. 4;
The Building of the Bar Association, 1908-1909, George Enescu Street no. 1;
The Apollo Palace, 1912-1914, Republicii Street no. 12.
Among the residential buildings designed by the architect, the most well-known are the great tenement buildings: the Rimanóczy Kalman. Sr. Palace, the Apollo Palace, the Moskovits Miksa Palace, and the Rimanóczy Kalman. Jr. Palace.
https://www.oradeaheritage.ro/