Adress: Şirul Canonicilor 2
GPS: 47.06790 N, 21.93147 E

Oradea, The Roman-Catholic Bishop Palace

Five minutes from the Central Railway Station of Oradea is the most biggest palace of the city having 100 rooms and 365 windows. This is the Bishop Palace next to the roman-catholic basilica projected in Baroque style by the well-known Austrian architect Franz Anton Hildebrant. The construction had started in 1762 and it finished in 1777. The building has its base-plane in form of a U what delimites an interior yard. Among the visitors of the building were numbered queen Maria Terezia and king II Josif of Austria. The palace also has a chapel of a rare beauty having its ceiling and walls decorated by frescos. In 1948-49 when the Greek communists lost the fight against the king represented a drastic detour in the palace's life. Among 1000 kids of the Greek partisans were saved and accommodated in the palace. The bishop had to live the building in 4 hours and in the next years the kids destroyed the whole interior of the building. In 1963 as the bishop hadn't had enough money for the renovation (as their lands were seized) it gave the right of use to the city without giving up the right as owner of the building. Therefore at 17 January 1971 in the Baroque Palace opened the Tarii Crisurilor Museum. In 1996 the church started the legal procedures to regain the palace. The final decision after which that the Catholic Curch got back its right of the building's use as well as the Tarii Crisurilor Museum has 5 years to find an adequate building to move in was pronounced at 9 July 2004. The museum has a large collection more that 250 000 exhibits presented in 4 permanent sections: history, ethnography, science of nature and arts.