Refurbishment works ongoing at Romania’s Oradea fortress

Two bastions and part of the defense walls of the Oradea fortress, in northwestern Romania, are currently undergoing refurbishment, Stiri.tvr.ro reported.

The works, worth RON 9 million (EUR 1.89 million) are supported by EU funding, with the Oradea City Hall contributing 2% of the value of the project.

The builders working on the medieval walls of the fortress are taking out the bricks that degraded in time and replace them with others, recovered after the demolition of older houses. The pentagon-shaped walls were erected at the end of the 16th century.

The buildings inside the fortress underwent refurbishment works, amounting to over EUR 21 million in EU funding, between 2010 and 2015.

Today, the fortress is a venue for numerous cultural events of the city, from medieval festivals to film screenings.

The Princely Palace inside the fortress hosts the Museum of the City of Oradea, with permanent exhibitions on the history of photography in Oradea, exhibitions of the Oradea Greek Catholic Church, Reformed Church, and Roman Catholic Church, as well as various temporary exhibitions. The city’s art gallery, part of the museum, is also housed in the palace. Another permanent exhibition is the ‘Bread Museum,’ set up in a part of the building where a bakery was opened for over 300 years. Also part of the museum is the Bihor Resistance and Repression Memorial.

(Photo: Cetatea Oradea Facebook Page)