Tourist Guide Targu Mures

1. Introduction

There are actually 2 tours: one on the Cornesti Plateau and at the Zoo, which I will write about separately, and one on the sights in the city center which I will write about here.

We parked on Fortress Avenue, right at the entrance to the fortress on this street with green space in the middle. I paid via app for one hour of parking.

2. Medieval Citadel

The Medieval Citadel hosts the Reformed Church of the Citadel, in which personalities such as Louis I of Hungary or Ioan of Hunedoara organized national assemblies. It was in this church that Francisc Rakoczi II was elected Prince Regent of Hungary and Transylvania. The Medieval fortress was built in the 17th century with strong walls and bastions, 7 in number, which housed the guilds of craftsmen.

I will present in detail the Medieval Fortress of Targu Mures in another article, with the stated challenge that it is a nice place where you feel good, pleasant for a leisurely stroll where you can learn and feel a little history of the place. It is the most popular objective of the city.

The address is on Citadel Boulevard. Visiting hours: from 9:30 am to 9 pm, except Mondays, free of charge.

The Reformed Church of the Citadel was built in the 14th - 15th centuries from the Franciscan order, but it was reformed Protestant, the architecture taking on baroque lines. On my penultimate visit I found it under renovation, now it is renovated. Unfortunately it was closed at the time of my visit.

The address is 3 Bernady Gyorgi Square

We left the Citadel through the Bastion of the Gate that takes you into Avram Iancu street paved with cubic stone. A little to the right, near the intersection with Bd. Cetatii, but opposite to it, is the Rakoczi Passage, on which I wanted to go down the famous, cadva, Rakoczi Stairs.

3. Rakoczi stairs

The Rakoczi Stairs are, in fact they were(!), painted with traditional motifs, when the painting was well maintained, they were considered among the most spectacular. Unfortunately on my last visits, I found the painting destroyed, degraded. And this time, there was no more traditional motives painted on the stairs, only some colors on the steps.

The address is Rakoczi Passage, they are open anytime.

4. Ascension Cathedral

Through this passage, we reach Revolutiei Street, part of DN15, which we follow to the left until its end, always having the imposing Orthodox Cathedral in front of our eyes.

Ascension Cathedral is the largest church in the city. It is dedicated to the Ascension of the Lord and is Orthodox. In front of the cathedral (we came from the back) is the equestrian statue of Avram Iancu.

The address is 1 Trandafirilor Square.

From in front of the Orthodox Cathedral begins the Rose Park. It is an elongated rectangular shaped park, which is flanked by the two one-way traffic lanes of this central artery of the city.

5. Franciscan Church Center / Tower

The center is located at the Rose Square and is spectacular due to the buildings with baroque, neoclassical and secessionist architecture. Here are the Church of St. John the Baptist, the Franciscan Tower, the Palace of Culture, the former City Hall. Opposite the square are the Apollo Palace and the National Theater. Also in the center we find the Mures County Museum which includes the Ethnography Museum, the Museum of Natural Sciences, the Art Museum, the Archaeology and History Museum. Some of them I will present briefly in the following.

We follow the direction from the Orthodox Cathedral towards the Palace of Culture, on the right side of the Rose Square. First we meet the Franciscan Tower.

Franciscan Church Tower. The Franciscan Church is of the Roman-Catholic religion and belongs to the Franciscan Order with the feast of St. Emeric, son of King Stefan I of Hungary. From the monastery remain the foundation walls and the baroque tower. It is next to a bus stop.

Nearby is the Ethnographic Museum.

The Museum of Ethnography and Folk Art is part of the Mures County Museum, housed in the Toldalagi Palace (18th century). It exhibits valuable ethnographic collections, representative objects, icons. The museum shows how the ethnicities who lived in these lands lived together.

Address: 11 Trandafirilor Square. Visiting hours: Tuesday - Friday: 9 - 16, Saturday: 9 - 14, Sunday: 9 - 13.

6. Town Hall

We pass a traffic light, without crossing, stay on the right side and enjoy more and more the side view of the Palace of Culture looming ahead on the right. We will have a better visibility a little further on, so we intentionally pass both it and the Prefecture and stop in front of the Town Hall.

The City Hall is at the end of the street where we came where a market is forming, Victory Square.

The address is Piata Victoriei 3.

7. Prefecture

Its neighbor is the prefecture. The Prefecture (Palace of the Prefecture) is located in Piata Victoriei 1, near the Rose Square. Today's Prefecture is the former City Hall from the early 20th century when this central area of the city began to be organized. Its architecture is specifically secessionist. It stands out thanks to the Prefecture Tower, 60 meters high.

In front of the Prefecture is the Wolf Statue.

8. Palace of Culture

The next neighbor to the right is the highlight of the Targ-Muresan sights, about which you can read a dedicated article. The Palace of Culture is perhaps the most spectacular building in Targ-Murese. The Palace of Culture is a representative work of Art Nouveau style. It is the most spectacular tourist attraction of the city.

It can be visited and is open from 9 am to 4 pm, on weekends shorter program, closed on Mondays. Tickets cost 16 lei full / 4 lei split. The Palace of Culture will amaze us with its rooms and exhibitions: Great Hall, Hall and Stairs, Small Hall, Hall of Mirrors, Bernady Hall, Dandea Hall, Secession Hall, Permanent Gallery of Modern Romanian Art, Permanent Gallery of Hungarian Classical Art, Ion Vlasiu Gallery, Donatia Elisabeta and Gheorghe David Gallery, Dosa Geza Gallery, temporary exhibitions. The address is Victoriei Square 1. More information on https://palatul-culturii.ro/.

I was taking a picture of the Palace of Culture from the sidewalk opposite to get a better grasp of the whole image of the building.

9. Teleki-Bolyai Library

We will make our way back to the central street, called Tranadafirilor Square, but on the other sidewalk and partially through the middle, through the park. In the park there are several statues and 2 parallel alleys that frame a small green space. When we get to the end of the little park, in front of the Orthodox Cathedral, if we turn to the left, we notice another beautiful church.

It is the Roman Catholic Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

The address is 61 Roses Square

We return to the center of the park and cross at the traffic light to change direction at 90 degrees on Bolyai street, one-way and sloping, quite narrow. It is another good paid parking place for visiting the center. At the top of the slope after a very small parking lot, on the left side is our next objective. The Teleki-Bolyai Library (18th-19th centuries) was built by Count Samuel Teleki and holds 40,000 volumes of books, some of them rare and old.

The address is 17 Bolyai Street. Open Tuesday - Friday 10 - 17:30

The 2 other sights are in the higher part of town. Very shortly we return on the same street to pose and Unitarian Church...

10. End of the walk

... and then we continue along the curved street, which takes us to Kogalniceanu street and then Bd. Mihai Viteazul. Already it is already getting in and from certain angles we can see the prominent tower of the Reformed Church of the Fortress, because in fact we are again near the fortress wall, but on the other side of it. We go around the outside of the Citadel on the streets Nicolae Iorga and Bd. Cetatii to close the loop that targeted the central sights of Targu Mures.