Cluj-Napoca : Romania

Cluj-Napoca (Hungarian: Kolozsvar; German: Klausenburg; Latin: Claudiopolis), the seat of Cluj county, is one of the most important academic, cultural and industrial centers in Romania. Regarded as the historic capital of Transylvania, the city is located in northwestern Romania, and is approximately 480 km (200 miles) northwest of Bucharest in the Somesul Mic valley.

History

Cluj-Napoca has a very rich historical and cultural heritage. The city stands on the site of an ancient Dacian settlement, Napoca, which the Romans first made a municipium and later a colonia. From the 3rd century it was the seat of the procurator of Provincia Porolissensis.

Colonized by Saxons in 1178, the city at this time received its German name of Klausenburg, from the old word Klause, meaning mountain pass. In 1270 it was given urban privileges by King Stephen V of Hungary and began to grow quickly: the Saint Michael Cathedral was built under King Sigismund. By this time the number of Saxon and Hungarian inhabitants were equal, and King Matthias Corvinus (who was born here in 1440) ordered that the chief judge should be Hungarian and Saxon in turn. However, between 1545 and 1570 large numbers of the Transylvanian Saxons left the town due to the introduction of Unitarian doctrines, and the city became a center for Hungarian nobility and intellectuals.

The first Hungarian newspaper appeared in Cluj-Napoca in 1791, and the first Hungarian theatrical company was established in 1792. In 1798 the town was destroyed by fire to a great extent.

From 1830 to 1848, as capital of Transylvania and the seat of the Transylvanian diets, the city became the centre of the Hungarian national movement in the principality. During the Revolutions of 1848, Cluj was taken and garrisoned in December by Hungarians under the command of the Polish general Jozef Bem.
After First World War Cluj along with the rest of Transylvania becomes part of the Kingdom of Romania. In 1940 Cluj was transferred to Hungary by the Vienna Award, but Hungarian forces in the city were defeated by the Soviet and Romanian army in October [[1944]. Cluj was restored to Romania by the Treaty of Paris in 1947.
In 1994 and in 2000, Cluj-Napoca hosted the Central European Olympiad in Informatics (CEOI). It thus made Romania not only the first country to have hosted the CEOI, but also the first country to have hosted it a second time.

Population
From the Middle Ages on, Cluj-Napoca has been a multicultural city with a diverse cultural and religious life. As of 2002 the city’s population was 317,943 (ranked third in Romania after the capital Bucharest and Iasi). The ethnic composition, according to official sources is: 252,433 Romanians (79.4%), 60,287 Hungarians (19%), 1% Roma, 0.23% Germans and 0.06% Jews.

Economy
Ursus beer is brewed here. The city is served by the Cluj-Napoca International Airport.