Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Cluj-Napoca is located in northwest Romania.  It's about equidistant from Bucharest, Budapest, and Belgrade.  The city is home to about 287.000 people with over 410.000 in the greater metro area.  It's the country's second-largest city and the largest in Transylvania.  

While the city is officially Cluj-Napoca everyone just calls it "Cluj."  The city dates back to 1213, and is located on the site of a pre-Roman settlement named Napoca.  In 1974, the communist government hyphenated the name to emphasise its Roman history.

In 2021, it was named a UNESCO City of Film and joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

St. Michael's Church was completed in 1487 and it is named after the city's patron saint, the Archangel Michael.  It is the second-largest church in Transylvania.

The opera housed was completed in 1906.  Since 1919 the building has been home to both the local Romanian National Theatre and the Romanian Opera.  In 1920, the first two concerts were conducted by the Czech conductor Oskar Nebdal.

The Dormition of the Theotokos Cathedral is the Orthodox cathedral.  It was was consecrated in 1933.

The State Hungarian Theatre is also home to the Hungarian Opera.  The building was completed in 1910, and renovated in 1961, and is listed as a national historic monument.

The Palace of Justice was completed in 1902.

The Franciscan Church was consecrated in 1290.  It is a mix of Romanesque and Gothic styles with a Baroque tower.

The Matthias Corvinus House was built in 1443 and it's one of the oldest buildings in the city.  Over the years it has been a jail, a hospital and a museum.  Since 1950, it has been a visual arts institute of the local Art and Design University.

The Transfiguration Cathedral was consecrated in 1803.  It is known as the Minorites' Church and in 1924, the Vatican donated it to the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church.

The Evangelical Church was consecrated in 1829.  It also serves the local German-speaking Lutheran community.

The Cathedral of the Martyrs and Confessors of the 20th Century is still under construction.  Work began in the early 1990s and there is no timeline on when it should be completed by.  It is financed by private donations and is expected to cost over €270M.

The House of the Army is functionalist building that serves as a cultural and social centre for both military personnel and the public.

The Central Park was founded in the 19th century.

The Jewish History Museum opened in 2020.

The Neolog Synagogue was completed in 1887.  It is also known as the Temple of the Deportees because Jews were sent from here to Auschwitz during WWII.

We also took a couple of local day trips to Sibiu, to a salt mine, as well as some hiking at the Turda Gorge.

Strážnice, Czech Republic

Kája and I spent the weekend in Strážnice which is about a two hour train ride from Brno.  

Strážnice is home to 5.400 people and is 65 km (40 miles) from Brno, close to the Slovak border.  While Neolithic pottery has been found here, the it was first written mention of the town was in 1302.  It was one of the most populated towns in Moravia at the start of the 17th century.

The old city gate bastions date back to the 16th century.  They were used to protect the town from Turkish invasions.

Behind these gates is a chapel that was consecrated in 1917.  The story goes that it was built as thanks to the men who returned in good health from WWI.

The stone cross near the gate dates back to 1769.  The baroque monument is one of the oldest in the town and marks one of the places that city executions used take place.

The nearby city cemetery dates back to 1895.

Inside the cemetery is a tombstone dedicated to the Red Army that liberated the city in April 1945.

February isn't the time of year to see storks but here's a stork nest for when the season comes.  I'm told that nearby is one of the last places in Central Europe where a forest colony of White Storks can still be seen.

The shrine at Radějovská street dates back to the first half of the 19th century.

The town hall is a protected cultural monument that dates back to the 17th century.

The Strážnice Castle, is less castle and more chateau, is from the mid-19th century.  The castle is home to the National Institute of Folk Culture and a library with over 13.000 books.

The castle is in the middle of a large park where there's an amphitheatre.  

The Parish Church of St. Martin was a Gothic church in the 15th century but it burnt down several times.  In the 1720s it was renovated in the Baroque style.  

The Strážnice Museum of the Villages of South-East Moravia is an. open-air folk museum that opened in 1981.  

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was built in 1747.

The synagogue was built in 1804 and renovated in 1879.  It was damaged in 1941 and it was then used as a warehouse.  In 1991 it was returned to the Jewish community.  Today, it is part of the Strážnice Museum.

Next to the synagogue is the Jewish cemetery which was founded in the mid-17th century.  It is 5000m² (1.2 acres) with around 1500 gravestones.

The town is located on the Baťa Canal and it's possible to take boat rides during the summer.

In front of the city museum is a statue of the philosopher and educator Jan Amos Komenský.  He studied here in 1604-1605.

Of course no Czech town is complete without a statue of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia.  Apparently he had studied here.  

Strážnice is also the home of really good potato chips (crisps).  

I hear that the factory is the town's biggest employer.

Here's a short video I found on YouTube showing the factory and how the crisps are made.

©Strážnické brambůrky Hobža

Update:  Every year, Strážnice hosts an international folklore festival.

Dolní Kounice, Czech Republic

Yesterday was Czech Statehood Day so we had a public holiday in the middle of the week.  

To celebrate, Kája and I joined a few of his friends from work on a day trip to Dolní Kounice which is a small town in South Moravia, of about 2.500 people, around 25 km (16 miles) south of Brno.  

Dolní Kounice lies in the Bobrava Highlands in the valley of the Jihlava River. 

The oldest convent in Moravia was founded here in 1181.  The village was named Dolní Kounice since the 15th century.  In 1571 it became a town but for some reason lost the title in 1964.  In 1998 it became a town again.

Above the town lies the Pilgrimage Chapel of Saint Anthony.  The original chapel was built in 1654 but the current Baroque chapel replaced it in 1757.  

The way up to the chapel is lined by the Stations of the Cross.  

There's a great view of the city and the entire valley from on top of the hill.

The castle was originally Gothic when it was built in 1330.  During reconstruction in the 16th and 17th centuries it was completed in the Renaissance style.  

The castle is a protected landmark but the owners put it up for sale last month for 500.000.000 Kč ($23.4 million).

The Rosa Coeli "Heavenly Rose" monastery is the town's most well-known historical monument.  It was a female Premonstratensian monastery founded in 1181.  

During the Hussite Wars is was burned  but eventually orderly life returned which lasted until 1527.  There was a fire in 1703 which put an end to renovation efforts.

The Church of St. Barbara, "Barborka" to the locals, sits on the site of a former Gothic site dating back to around 1560.  It was renovated in the Renaissance style in 1688.  From 1862 to 1879 the church was used for Catholic services.  In 1921, the Hussite Church leased it for 15 years.  In the 1990s, the church was renovated and now is home to Orthodox services.

The Neo-Renaissance Catholic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was consecrated in 1879, having replaced an older church that was destroyed ba a flood in 1862.  The tower is 41,6 metres (136.5) feet tall.

The synagogue was completed in 1655 and it is one of the oldest synagogues in Moravia.  The Nazis closed it in 1940 and it was restored in 1994.

The Jewish cemetery was founded in 1680.  There are around 1300 tombstones and it is a protected cultural monument.

Since the end of WWII, the town hall is located in a house dating back to 1657.  Today it also doubles as the tourist information centre.

The Hotel Vinum Coeli dates back to 1597.  It became an inn back in 1717.  Today, it's a hotel and restaurant, complete with a bowling alley and a gym.

This building has a plaque stating that Jaroslav Skryja once lived here.  

The plaque says that he was a patriotic teacher executed by the Nazis during the period of non-freedom.

In addition to being a teacher, he was also the mayor of Dolní Kounice.  During the Nazi occupation, he joined the resistance.  He was arrested on 13 December 1939 wile teaching.  He was transferred from prison to prison until he was tried in Berlin on 9 July 1942, the day of Reinhard Heydrich's funeral.  He was executed on 27.10.1942 and his family was sent a bill for 2.065,45 Reichsmarks for the execution which included witness fess, transportation costs, posting notices of the execution, last wishes and a reward to the executioner.  I'm not sure but I think that would be around $500 in today's money.

The town's kulturní dům, was completed in 1981.  It's used for cultural and social events.  

Apparently Dolní Kounice is also famous for its red wine.  We didn't try any yesterday but maybe next time.  After exploring the town, we headed over to Ivančice for lunch at the RAF Museum.