Nagyvárad

City Hall

Szigligeti
theater

Cathedral

Interior of
Cathedral

Golden
bust

Splinter of
skull

Geographically, NAGYVÁRAD (Oradea, Rumania today) does not belong to Transylvania. It is still part of the Great Hungarian Plain Land (Hung. Nagyalföld). The reason why we mention Nagyvárad under the Transylvania section, though, is that the city, with its population of entirely Hungarian, was annexed from Hungary to Rumania at the same time, with the same act, the infamous Treaty of Trianon, 1920, when Transylvania was. Nagyvárad, as Transylvania, too, had never belonged to Rumania before in history.
The Archdiocese of Nagyvárad was founded by Hungarian king Saint Ladislaus I (1077-1095), the famed King of Knight, in 1093. Also, he became the first Hungarian king who was buried in the Bishopric cathedral. Nagyvárad was first destroyed by the Tartar invasion of 1241, but during the reign of the kings of the House of the Anjou (Charles Robert and his son Louis I, The Great), during the 14th century, the town bloomed again. The Kolozsvári brothers, Hungarian sculptors of the gothic era, made a life-size equestrian statue of the Saint Ladislaus I, which was destroyed, along with entire town, after Turkish troops occupied Nagyvárad, called in this period as Várad. Only 300 people were left from the town, which had been once a great place, having been the Archdiocese of the region.
The Habsburg army pushed out the Ottoman (Turkish) occupiers from the town, in 1692, but the fightings were so fierce that Nagyvárad again was destroyed, with only 21 house left. But this was not everything. The next year, Tartar raiders cracked down on the city again, and, according to a census in 1720, Nagyvárad had only 216 inhabitants.
During the Hungarian Liberation Fight of 1848, the largest Hungarian military factory and depot was in Nagyvárad. After the Compromise, 1867, the city was going through a quick industrialization procedure, and by the turn of the century, Nagyvárad became a busy commercial and cultural center; in this period it was referred to as Little Paris at Körös (referring to the river crossing the town).
The City Hall was built in 1900, in eclectic style, and shows strong resemblance to the city hall of Arad. The Szigligeti theater was stands on the main square of Nagyvárad and was opened in1900.
After the Tartar, Turkish and Habsburg devastation, Nagyvárad was completely rebuilt. The two-tower cathedral was built between 1752-1780, in baroque style. The walls of the 70-meter-long and 30-meter-wide church are covered with marbles from Carrara. The painting of the main alter, by Fischer Vincenz, depicts the Ascension of Virgin Mary; the organ is a gift from Habsburg queen reigning on the Hungarian throne, Maria Theresa (1740-1780).
Nagyvárad is often referred to as the City of Saint Ladislaus. The great Hungarian warrior-king was canonized in 1192, for the expansion of Christianity in Hungary, making it a general, nation-wide religion. During the canonization procedure his tomb was opened,the body removed and covered in precious textile. Then, it was placed in a silver coffin with golden ornaments. A gold crown was placed in his head and a sceptre put in his hand. The two arms were also removed to use them as a relic.
A golden bust of Saint Ladislaus, with a replica of the Hungarian Holy Crown, contains his head relic, and is one of the great treasures of the cathedral of Nagyvárad. This bust was made by Hungarian goldsmith Fülöp Link, in 1892, in preparation for the 1000th anniversary of the Hungarian Conquest, 896 of Transylvania (another bust, with his head-relic, is in the cathedral of Győr, Hungary). This golden bust is on display, once every year, in one of the chapels of the Nagyvárad cathedral. Also, on display can be seen a splinter of his skull, and warrior axe, which was recovered from his tomb.