Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , Hung. Kolozsvár, Ger. Klausenburg, city (1990 pop. 329,234), W central Romania, in Transylvania, on the Someşul River. The historic capital of Transylvania and the second largest city in Romania, it is the administrative center of an agricultural and mineral-rich area. Its diverse manufactures include a variety of consumer goods. The city is also a noted educational center with two universities, a branch of the Romanian Academy of Sciences, a fine arts institute, a polytechnic institute, and several scientific research centers. Cluj was founded by German colonists in the 12th cent. and became a thriving commercial and cultural center in the Middle Ages. It was made a free city in 1405 by the king of Hungary. Stephen Bathory founded (1581) a Jesuit academy there, and the city became (16th cent.) the chief cultural and religious center of Transylvania. It was incorporated into Austria-Hungary in 1867 and was transferred to Romania in 1920. Hungarian forces occupied the city during World War II. In the mid-1970s, Cluj was joined with neighboring Napoca. Landmarks include the 14th-century Gothic Church of St. Michael, the house where King Matthias I of Hungary was born (1440), and the ruins of an 11th-century church. Cluj-Napoca is also noted for its botanical gardens. About half the population is Hungarian.

Cluj‐Napoca, Romania Napoca, Castrum Clus, Klausenburg, Kolozsvár Napoca was the Dacian name which was retained by the Romans. Clus, which became Cluj in the 14th century, is from the Latin clusum ‘closed’, a reference to the surrounding hills, and was developed from Castrum Clus, the Medieval Latin name for the small fortified settlement. The city was called Klausenburg when part of the Austro‐Hungarian Empire and Kolozsvár when part of Hungary; both indicate a stronghold from the German Burg and the Hungarian vár and a relationship with Cluj, although Klause can mean a ‘mountain pass’ or a ‘hermit's, or monk's, cell’; kolosz might come from kolosszalis ‘colossal’ or kolostor ‘monastery’ or ‘convent’. The suffix ‐Napoca was added in 1974 by Nicolae Ceauşescu (1918–89) after he became head of state in 1967 to draw attention to the city's Daco‐Roman origin.