Virtual Meeting Place Romania

Visit a beautiful place :
Satu Mare
by Matthias Reich
www.tabibito.de

This city called Satu Mare is placed in the northwest of the country and it is approx. 450 km far from the capital Bucharest. You must know that Satu Mare is at approx. 30 km far from the border with Ukraine (in the north), and also at 10 km from the border with Hungary (in the west). Satu Mare lies a few kilometers far away from the foot of the mountains in a fruitful area because it is the lower course of the Somes river.

Talking about inhabitants, there are approx. 130,000 but the district with the same name has over 395,000 inhabitants. Less than 60% of the total number are Romanians, 35% are Hungarians, 4% Germans (Swabians) and 2% gypsies. Satu Mare belongs to the three largest cities of the Romanian region Maramures - the others are Baia Mare and Sighetu Marmatiei. If you want to visit this city, you may use the international airport or the railway station which is far away from the center in the east. Nearby the station you may found the bus station and a small, green recreational park. From there, going to the beautiful main street Bulevardul Traian you will reach the central square called Piata Libertatii (Liberty Plaza). I saw here some churches, museums and hotels. The south area between the square and the river Somes is interesting - during the communist times the whole old city centre was destroyed and transformed into a grey deserted full of concrete. Now, here is found the city hall.

Before visiting Satu Mare, you should know that it became already a town in 10^th century under the name Castrum Zotmar (when it was mentioned for the first time). At the beginning, many Germans came and settled in the region. There was a fortress, which did not survive for long. Turks, Hungarians, Habsburger army attacked and occupied this city several times. From 1699 to 1918, as well as during the second World War, Satu Mare belonged to Austrian-Hungarian Empire and then to Hungary. However from this time only very few buildings are still preserved. It is amazing that between 1768 - 1772, the old City Hall was built in the baroque style, with a tower on the main facade.

Seeing the city this year (2004) I think it is large and modern. Close of the central place, worth to see the street "1 Decembrie 1918" because here you may find a large Orthodox church patronized by the Archangels Gabriel and Michael. It is used by the Romanians of the city. Also the surrounding buildings placed here are witnesses from the old gloss of the city. As in the most Romanian cities, there was a large Jewish community in Satu Mare, around 13,000 members, but most of them were deported until 1944 to the extermination camps. During those times in the city there were eight synagogues. Now only the large synagogue built in 1920 still can be seen (a few meters south from the Liberty Plaza). Not far from here there are unfinished concrete ruins of the new metropolitan city planned by the dictator Ceausescu. In the center, at the eastern side of Liberty Plaza, is placed the big Roman-catholic cathedral erected between 1785 - 1798 in the neo-classic style, having a monumental portal with an Attic frontispiece supported by six columns with Corinthian capitals. It was greatly damaged during the Second World War. Its shape is somehow strange because in front and in the backside there are domes equal in size which are connected by the main ship. The inside is extremely spacious and the religious services are held in Hungarian.

Another beautiful neo-classic construction dating back to the beginning of the 19^th century is The Ormos House, situated in the Liberty Plaza too. Considered by specialists a representative construction of Transylvania, the Dacia Hotel was erected in 1902 after a plan that won the first prize at the architectural contest held in Vienna. You may admire here on the facade many floral motifs, made of enameled ceramics, and the city coat of arms. The roof has two nuances of blue color. Staying one night at the Dacia Hotel in a large double room, you must pay 550,000 Lei (14 Euro) per person. But the most cheap reservation is at the Sport Hotel. Look to the Romanian traditional food pictures ("ciorba de burta" means a special soup from the cow stomach, and "mamaliga" is made from corn flour and served with fresh cheese and sour cream).

Satu Mare is a good starting point if you want to explore the rural Maramures region. Nearby the city, at the foot of the mountains, you may visit another important city called Baia Mare (its meaning is "large mine"). A few kilometers to the east you may see Negresti Oas - a dream mansion after another in this beautiful place! An unbelievable boom of construction activity, and many modern cars with foreign numbers inside the yards of these villas.

I invite you to see my impressions about this second trip in Romania :
Oradea, Cluj, Iasi, Suceava, Cinci Manastiri, Vatra Dornei, Sighet,
Viseul de Sus and Satu Mare.
I am sure that you will enjoy a travel like mine as much as I did!!!

This page is last updated on 19 December 2004