page_title: Cluj-Napoca
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Cluj-Napoca / History / Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: „Clavdiopolis, Coloswar vulgo Clavsenbvrg, Transiluaniæ ciuitas primaria“ (1617) English: 17th century view of Cluj-Napoca Ελληνικά: "Claudiopolis, Coloswar vulgo Clausenburg, Transilvaniæ civitas primaria". γκραβούρα του μεσαιωνικού Κλουζ του Γκέοργκ Χουφνάγκελ(1617) Français&#160;: «&#160;Clavdiopolis, Coloswar vulgo Clavsenbvrg, Transiluaniæ ciuitas primaria&#160;». Kolozsvár en 1617. Image réalisée par Georg Houfnagel d'après un dessin de Egidius van der Rye. Magyar: Kolozsvár látképe Italiano: „Clavdiopolis, Coloswar vulgo Clavsenbvrg, Transiluaniæ ciuitas primaria“. Cluj nel 1617 - immagine realizzata da Georg Houfnagel da un disegno di Egidius van der Rye. Latina: „Clavdiopolis, Coloswar vulgo Clavsenbvrg, Transiluaniæ ciuitas primaria“ (1617) Polski: Claudiopolis (Kluż-Napoka), miedzioryt Português: „Clavdiopolis, Coloswar vulgo Clavsenbvrg, Transiluaniæ ciuitas primaria". Gravura da Cluj medieval, de Georg Houfnagel (1617). Română: „Clavdiopolis, Coloswar vulgo Clavsenbvrg, Transiluaniæ ciuitas primaria“. Gravură a Clujului medieval de Georg Houfnagel (1617)
context_page_description: Cluj-Napoca, commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest, Budapest and Belgrade. Located in the Someșul Mic river valley, the city is considered the unofficial capital to the historical province of Transylvania. From 1790 to 1848 and from 1861 to 1867, it was the official capital of the Grand Principality of Transylvania.
  As of 2011, 324,576 inhabitants lived within the city limits, marking a slight increase from the figure recorded at the 2002 census. The Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area has a population of 411,379 people, while the population of the peri-urban area exceeds 420,000 residents. The new metropolitan government of Cluj-Napoca became operational in December 2008. According to a 2007 estimate provided by the County Population Register Service, the city hosts a visible population of students and other non-residents—an average of over 20,000 people each year during 2004–2007. The city spreads out from St.
context_section_description: At the beginning of the Middle Ages, two groups of buildings existed on the current site of the city: the wooden fortress at Cluj-Mănăștur (Kolozsmonostor) and the civilian settlement developed around the current Piața Muzeului (Museum Place) in the city centre. Although the precise date of the conquest of Transylvania by the Hungarians is not known, the earliest Hungarian artifacts found in the region are dated to the first half of the 10th century. In any case, after that time, the city became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. King Stephen I made the city the seat of the castle county of Kolozs, and King Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary founded the abbey of Cluj-Mănăștur (Kolozsmonostor), destroyed during the Tatar invasions in 1241 and 1285. As for the civilian colony, a castle and a village were built to the northwest of the ancient Napoca no later than the late 12th century. This new village was settled by large groups of Transylvanian Saxons, encouraged during the reign of Crown Prince Stephen, Duke of Transylvania. The first reliable mention of the settlement dates from 1275, in a document of King Ladislaus IV of Hungary, when the village (Villa Kulusvar) was granted to the Bishop of Transylvania. On 19 August 1316, during the rule of the new king, Charles I of Hungary, Cluj was granted the status of a city (Latin: civitas), as a reward for the Saxons' contribution to the defeat of the rebellious Transylvanian voivode, Ladislaus Kán.
  The couple buried together and known as the Lovers of Cluj-Napoca are believed to have lived between 1450 and 1550.
  Many craft guilds were established in the second half of the 13th century, and a patrician stratum based in commerce and craft production displaced the older landed elite in the town's leadership. Through the privilege granted by Sigismund of Luxembourg in 1405, the city opted out from the jurisdiction of voivodes, vice-voivodes and royal judges, and obtained the right to elect a twelve-member jury every year. In 1488, King Matthias Corvinus (born in Kolozsvár in 1443) ordered that the centumvirate—the city council, consisting of one hundred men—be half composed from the homines bone conditiones (the wealthy people), with craftsmen supplying the other half; together they would elect the chief judge and the jury. Meanwhile, an agreement was reached providing that half of the representatives on this city council were to be drawn from the Hungarian, half from the Saxon population, and that judicial offices were to be held on a rotating basis. In 1541, Kolozsvár became part of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom (that transformed to Principality of Transylvania in 1570) after the Ottoman Turks occupied the central part of the Kingdom of Hungary; a period of economic and cultural prosperity followed. Although Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) served as a political capital for the princes of Transylvania, Cluj (Kolozsvár) enjoyed the support of the princes to a greater extent, thus establishing connections with the most important centres of Eastern Europe at that time, along with Košice (Kassa), Kraków, Prague and Vienna.
caption: "Claudiopolis, Coloswar vulgo Clausenburg, Transilvaniæ civitas primaria". Gravure[a] of Cluj by Georg Houfnagel (1617)
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