Romania’s Oradea celebrates World Art Nouveau Day

This weekend, Oradea organizes a series of cultural events to highlight its architectural heritage and historical buildings. The events, which celebrate World Art Nouveau Day (June 10), will feature a combination of music, ballet, art, and light shows, according to Adriana Lipoveanu, deputy director of Oradea City Hall’s Chief Architect Institution.

The event takes place over a period of four days, starting on Thursday evening, June 9, with performances by Oradea’s Philharmonic Orchestra, vocal performers, and ballet dancers from the Romanian National Opera Cluj-Napoca, in the city’s Union Square.

The Darvas-La Roche House in Oradea, a symbolic building of the northwestern Romanian city, will inaugurate an exhibition named “Arts and Crafts in Furniture Design” on Thursday. Here, several pieces of furniture created by the Vago architects will be on display. These furniture pieces are recovered from Budapest and Glasgow and reconditioned by the specialists from Sibiu’s Brukenthal Museum. The Foundation for the Protection of Historic Monuments that has organized this exhibition intends to register the furniture pieces as national cultural property.

On June 10, the students of the Faculty of Civil Engineering Oradea will organize an event on the topic of “study, form, and innovation in the creation of Vago architects” around 10:00 o’clock. In the afternoon, the Darvas-La Roche House hosts a documentary evening produced by Oradea’s municipality and other partner cities on its idyllic terrace.

On June 11, a series of street art and guided tours on the set theme of the year of the World’s Art Nouveau Day "Printing Houses, Advertisements and Historic Shops" will take place, followed by the highlight of the day, the music, ballet and light show entitled "Art Nouveau over the years" that takes place at 21:00. Here, the bridge between music and architecture will be created by LED screens on both sides of the stage, which will show videos with images of Art Nouveau buildings in Oradea. The entry is free of charge.

Since 2012, Oradea has been listed in the European Art Nouveau Network, along with other significant European cities with such heritage buildings, such as Vienna, Budapest, and Barcelona.

(Photo source: Beriliu | Dreamstime.com)