Urban Planning in Cluj in the Age of Dualism (1867 – 1918)

The instauration of the dualist regime in the Habsburg Empire beginning with 1867 modified the status of Transylvania by making it part of the Hungarian Kingdom. The process of modernization now imposed by Budapest aimed at politically and administratively homogenizing the province with the rest of the kingdom, and also modernizing Transylvania as one of the most backward regions of the Empire. The architecture promoted in the province by architects from Budapest and Vienna was an important visual barometer of these changes, imposing the innovation of both building types and decorative language. The most typical case for the evolution of architecture in the province was the city of Cluj, which has gradually lost its medieval image thanks to new constructions which mostly took place after 1880, turning it into a city dominated by eclectic architecture.

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