The City Hall

The building was developed by the architect Lechner Ödön in Budapest. The tower is 54 meters high, and in the architectural decoration one can see many Flemish Renaissance elements. A red marble massive staircase leads up stairs, to an important festive hall.

        The inauguration of the building took place in 1877 and a year later the clock that still functions today, was brought from Switzerland.

The Orthodox Cathedral

The bedrock of the New Orthodox Cathedral of Arad called “Sfanta Treime” was put 15 years ago. It is an extremely valuable work, both spiritual and material. It is a monumental building, built in the Byzantine style in the shape of a cross, with a length of 61 m and 35 m wide at de bases and 25 m at the entrance, with an height of 61 m  and can shelter over 4000 people. But the building is still in the finishing stage.

The Neptun Swimming Pools

The swimming place is surrounded by the Mures river, on an area of 40 hectares of greenery. It is the second largest swimming place in Europe located near a flowing water. There are five pools ( a swimming pool, one for adults and three for kids with thermal water), more than 300 camping huts, over 100 clubs, restaurants, bars and entertaining locations. Also, there you can practice more sports like tennis, volleyball, roller-skates, running, and mini-football. 

The Ioan Slavici Theatre

In 1868, the leadership of the city decided to build the City Hall and the Theatre. Thus, in 1872 was started and completed in 1874. It is a neoclassical building with three levels, the main hall had a capacity of 1200 seats.

        At the opening festivity Franz Jozef, the Emperor of the Austro Hungarian Empire also attended.

        After seven years a fire destroyed the building. The rebuilding was made by Halmay Andor, and know the main hall has 562 seats and in 1959 after another fire the building was completely restored. The gable on the main façade was decorated with a bas-relief.

In 1967 inside the theater there was arranged a small show hall, known by the people as the “Studio” hall.

The Fortress of Arad

The Fortress of Arad was built by  Maria Teresa’s demand, and it was built between 1763-1783 through  the plans of Ferdinan Philipp Harsch.

    The  Fortress of Arad played an important role in the revolution in 1848-1849, being besieged for long time. From within the fortress the Austrian army bombed the city for 8 months with over 40.000 projectiles. Now the fortress is a museum and also accommodates a unit from the Romanian Army.

The Cultural Palace

The Cultural Palace is one of the most representative buildings for the visitors of our city. This impressive building was built between 1911-1913. The building displays a variety of styles.         The Neoclassical style facade is ornated with a pediment supported by massive Corinthian columns , and above it there is a massive tower. The Side wings are dominated by elements of the Italian Renaissance style.

The Cenad Palace

         The building was built between 1892-1894 by the Railway Society of Arad – Cenad. It was built in eclectic style. The facade is ornate with elements of Italian Renaissance style, under the gate one can see mural pictures, with themes based on railway activity and religious life.

       In the courtyard two gas chandeliers have been preserved from the nineteenth century. Now the building, is hosting  public institutions and some civil organization centers.

The city of Arad

Arad

 

-Historical and chronological dates-

 

    The year 1068 is the year when Arad is first recorded in historic documents. The old Dacian citadel was part Burebista’s state and after 106 was under roman occupation.

       The Hungarian Kingdom stretched their domination on Arad in XI-th century, Arad was certified as a town in 1329.

        The Ottomans conquered the city in 1552, it’s only period of independence was on the time when Michael the Brave lived.

       In 1687 Arad is conquered by the Habsburg Empire,  and in 1834 Arad won the independence.

        The Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga compares Arad with Vienna during the documentation trip that he made in 1906.

      In 1870 Arad was the most populated town in Transylvania, with a population over 32,000 inhabitants.

As a result of economic bloom there have appeared some important objectives as garments factory (1867), the gas factory (1868), the brick factory(1869), and the furniture factory (1878).

     Arad was in full ascent after the Great Unification placing on fourth place in Romania in 1937, with more than 4,000 companies registered at the Chamber of Commerce.

     New industries have developed with related structures like toy factory (1959), factory clocks (1960) and chemical plant (1971).