MAIN ATTRACTIONS:
Introduction
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An architectural journey trough the historical neighbourhoods of Brasov offers the possibility to discover the stylistic variety of the buildings erected during the 800 years of existence of the town, thanks to the multiculturalism, a factor which determined simultaneously the artistic connection to both the Occidental and Oriental Europe. The valuable patrimony conserved on the nowadays territory of the town is reflected at the same time through the diversity of the architectural programs, from fortifications and administrative buildings to churches and other cult edifices or inhabitable houses, dating back to the Middle Age, Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism and to the modern period.
From the Middle Age are conserved some of the enclosure walls of the town, fastened with towers, bastions and external fortifications, the vestiges of Brassovia stronghold on Tampa Hill and the Citadel on Saint Martin Hill. The Saint Bartholomew Church of “Braşovul Vechi” has its origins in the XIIIth century, and the Black Church has been rebuilt inside the „Stronghold”, at the end of the XIVth century.
The Renaissance epoch is characterized in Brasov by the edification of a considerable number of inhabitable houses of the urban patriciate and of certain representative edifices of civil public architecture, such as the Merchants' House (1545).
The big fire of 1689, occurred after the settlement of the administration of the Habsburg Empire in Transylvania, provoked the biggest urban disaster of Brasov's history, affecting the majority of the important constructions, which have been rebuilt after 1700, in the spirit of the new styles imported from Vienna: Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassic, Biedermaier. The Saints Peter and Paul Church, the most important Baroque construction of the town, has been erected between 1776 and 1782, while the Council House, mentioned in documents for the first time in 1420, was rebuilt between 1774 and 1778. In the XVIIIth century, the Saint Nicholas Church of “Şcheii Braşovului” is considerably expanded, gaining its actual aspect.
During the last decades of the XIXth century, some of the ancient marginal fortifications of the town where demolished, new civil buildings, still functioning today, being subsequently erected: The Seat of the University’s Rector (the architect Peter Bartesch, 1881-1885), The Concerts’ House Reduta (the architect Cristian Kersch, 1893), the actual buildings of the City Hall (1897-1898) and the Prefecture (1902) or the Post Palace (1906).
The 1900 style is represented at Brasov in the first place by the creation of the architect Albert Schuller, author of the plans of the Saxon National Bank (1908) and Coroana Hotel (1909-1910). The interwar period is marked by the emergence of the constructions in neo-Romanian style, among which the most important is the Chamber of Commerce, today the County Library George Bariţiu (1928-1930).
The Hotel Aro-Palace (the architect Horia Creangă, 1938-1939), with its new wing (the architect Iancu Rădăcină, 1963), closes under chronological aspect the row of the protected construction in Braşov.