Secession Hall

At the beginning of the 20th century Marosvásárhely’s progressive city administration saw the time to build a new city center. This intent coincided with the dynamic economic development of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at the beginning of the century, which secured the financing of the initiative. According to the new concept, the city hall, the community house and a theater would have been located in the new center. The leaders of the city, headed by Mayor Bernády György, recognized the opportunities offered and came up with a completely new and bold vision. They were not satisfied with the fashionable historicist spirit (neo-baroque, neo-renaissance, eclecticism) and architects, instead  chose an innovative style, the Art Nouveau.

Two excellent designers, Komor Marcell and Jakab Dezső made the plans for the aforementioned buildings, but their team consisted of a series of illustrious artists such as  Körösfői-Kriesch Aladár, Toroczkai Wigand Ede, Róth Miksa, Sidló Ferenc etc., who worked on the interior and exterior decoration of the buildings. The result is the building of the City Hall (1907) and the Palace of Culture (1913), which is still impressive today. The plans presented in this exhibition are testimonies of the birth of these masterpieces.  (The plan of the theater was made to the place of the former Bodor Well.) A theater was planned to build next to the City Hall, while on the fourth side of the square was planned to build a county house. Unfortunately, these were not possible because of the outbreak of World War I and then the subsequent change of power. If they were to be completed, today we could admire the only uniform Art Nouveau square of Central Europe in Marosvásárhely.