Things to do in Cluj Napoca
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Alexandru Borza Botanic Gardens
West through the student ghetto campus housing, head past fast-food joints up Str Bogdan P Haşdeu to Str Pasteur to reach the fragrant 1930 Alexandru Borza Botanic Gardens, which covers 15 hectares, with shaded green lawns, a super Japanese garden and rose garden with some 600 different varieties, and an observation tower.
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Pharmaceutical Museum
Here's why we travel - for superb, fully rewarding, ever-surprising quirks like this, the small three-room Pharmaceutical Museum, housed in Cluj's first - and Romania's fourth - apothecary (1573), as a bronze-plate map painstakingly attests. Led by a hilarious pharmacist in a white lab coat, who points like a game-show model towards (seemingly ho-hum) glass cases of ground mummy dust, medieval alchemist symbols and painted 18th-century aphrodisiac bottles.
He speaks some English. If you utter a 'wow' you may get a deadpanned 'For you… interesting… for me… it is normal.'
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Roata
Housed in a back-alley building, with tasty traditional Romanian dishes served in clay plates, this joint is best for sitting on the small terrace and vying for space amidst potted plants and moss-covered stones. Traditional music puts a little bounce into the air. People know it's good, and it's almost always busy.
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Ethnographic Museum
An Ethnographic Museum was under renovation at last pass, but its collection of folk costumes and decorations should be reopened before your visit. There's a small shop here too.
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Speed/Alcatraz
Busy fast-food option with good seating options, including an outdoor deck and an enigmatic Alcatraz basement with seating in Al Capone-style cages.
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Museum of Zoology
From the centre, walk wast along Str Clinicilor, to where it branches left through a brick gate into the wooded Biology and Geology Faculty, where you'll find (100m up on the left, past the cocky statue of Emil Racoviţa) the surprisingly rewarding Museum of Zoology, an L-shaped lab that looks like it hasn't changed since biologist Racoviţa donned his final lab coat here.
Bird noise penetrates the huge windows, bringing some life to the silence (and death) of hundreds and hundreds of jarred and stuffed specimens. Invertebrates and fish sit vertically in filled tubes that make stuff like larvae look candy-bar sized. We particularly like the display of a vulture feasting o…
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St Michael's Church
The vast 14th-century St Michael's Church dominates Piaţa Unirii. The neo-Gothic tower (1859) topping the Gothic hall church creates a great landmark and the church (built in four stages) is considered to be one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in Romania. The three naves and vestry were the last to be completed at the end of the 16th century.
The choir vaults, built in the 14th century, were rebuilt in the 18th century, following a fire. Daily services are in Hungarian and Romanian, and evening organ concerts are often held.
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National History Museum of Transylvania
The National History Museum of Transylvania, which dates from 1859, is only half open. The history stops when things start to get interesting (and controversial) - when Hungarians and Romanians started living in the same neck of the woods (that wing should be re-opened in 2007).
In these quiet halls you can see a mummy from Egypt, lots of Roman pieces, ghoulish remains of three humans from the area's first tombs (they were probably Indo-Europeans, as Dacians cremated corpses), and a map that tries to make sense of migration in the area.
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Emil Racoviţa Institute of Speleology Museum
At research time, the Emil Racoviţa Institute of Speleology Museum, a fascinating collection of works by internationally renowned Romanian biologist Racoviţa (1868-1947), was moving to a new location. After joining an 1897 expedition to Antarctica, Racoviţa explored some 1400 caves and created the world's first institute devoted to caves here in Cluj. It's hoping to have an entrance at Piaţa Unirii at some point. The museum was formerly in the Biology and Geology Facility.
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Pan Travel
This top-notch outfit, led by engaging Andrei, can book accommodation, car rental,provide English- or French-speaking guides and arrange trips to the Apuseni or around Maramureş. It's best to contact them ahead, via website or telephone. They can get trips together in a few days. The trips themselves are authoritative and unstaged - a more 'knock on door' approach than a pre-planned artificial event. Bus 30 goes from near Piaţa Unirii.
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Babeş-Bolyai University
The Babeş-Bolyai University, home to some 43,000 students, is the largest university in Romania (after Bucharest). Founded in 1872, Hungarian was the predominant language here until 1918. Internationally, it's famed for being the home to the world's only university institute of speleology (the study of caves). It's a lovely building, with its gold-brick centre courtyard, which you can peek into rather freely.
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Hungarian Reformed Church
A couple of blocks east, on Str Mihail Kogălniceanu, is a Hungarian Reformed Church built by the king of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus, in 1486. The statue of St George slaying the dragon in front of the church is a replica of the 14th-century original, carved by the Hungarian Kolozsvári brothers; the original is now displayed in Prague. Organ concerts are sometimes held in the church.
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Birthplace of Matthias Corvinus
A block south is the politically charged Birthplace of Matthias Corvinus, a 15th-century Hungarian king. Note the side-by-side plaques. Romanian authorities allowed the Hungarian community to put up the first, then placed the rather flip second one in Romanian and English, which claims that the 'Romanian Matthias Corvinus' was born here 'according to historical tradition'.
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National Art Museum
On the eastern side of the square is the National Art Museum, housed inside the baroque Banffy Palace (1791). The couple of dozen rooms are filled with paintings and artefacts, including a 16th-century church altar and many 20th-century paintings. The inner courtyard (free entry) sometimes stages outdoor shows, as do the ground floor halls.
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Diesel Bar
It's obvious - right on the main square - but if you walk right pass the hipsters looking to be seen in the all-glass entry and go downstairs into a towering room, with red-spotlit tables and giant rooms,you can mix with the coolest of Cluj. 'It's chill-out on weekdays, DJs and live music on weekends', explained the nose-pierced bartenders.
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Tokyo
If you've been in Romania for a while, you'll want to come to this non-Romanian, non-Italian eatery. It's hard to miss, with its red Shinto gate façade west of the Botanical Gardens. Japanese pop on the stereo is a refreshing touch, as is the pretty good sushi, warm hand towels and imported green tea.
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La Casa Veche
This lovely three-room place serves Romanian fare and it feels like stepping back a stack of centuries. It has silver platters and rustic wooden floors inside, and outside seats on brick courtyard face the nice backyard. It's best for steaks, but - this is Romania - there are a few pasta choices.
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Obsession
One regular told us with boundless pride that the slick three-room Obsession, about 1km south of the centre, is 'definitely the hottest club in Transylvania'. It gets its cred with its blaring beats, wall-to-wall bodies, theme nights (including Magyar Night), and big-name DJ visitors.
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Museum - Open-air Section
The popular Museum open-air section is northwest of the centre in the Hoia forest (take bus 27 from the train station). The display includes traditional sawmills, wells, wine and oil presses, roadside crosses, fruit dryers and potters' workshops.
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Romanian Folk Art
Cluj's best shop for traditional items around Romania, this alley shop offers painted eggs, embroidered dresses and tablecloths, colourful masks and hats, and other pieces. Prices are a little lower than some shops, and quality's high.
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Irish & Music Pub
A little Wild West up-front, this sprawling pub is a great casual place for buddy blokes to sit and drink, indie-poppers to flirt, and students to study on quiet nights. Lots of live shows on the small stage.
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La Solas
The student ghetto, southwest of the centre (on/off Str Piezişă, reached by Str Clinicilor about 300m from Piaţa Lucian Blaga), teems with lively open-air bars, including La Solas.
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Hungarian Cemetery
Just east of the student ghetto, most easily reached from Str Avram Iancu down the hill, is an immense, highly memorable Hungarian cemetery, where dozens of revered Hungarian notables are buried.
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Synagogue of Deportees
This grand Moorish-style building is just one of three remaining synagogues in Cluj-Napoca. This was built in 1987 in memory of the 16,700 Jews deported to Auschwitz from Cluj-Napoca in 1944.
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Daksa
This experienced group offers horseback riding excursions outside Cluj, including transport, accommodation, food, guides. Trips last three to seven days. Carriage rides are also available.
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