Museums and galleries
Cultural Palace - Târgu Mureș
The Palace of Culture in Tîrgu Mureș is part of the Art Nouveau architectural style ensemble in the city center, together with the Administrative Palace, both built at the beginning of the 20th century. The Palace of Culture was the last and most representative work of the architect couple Komor Marcell and Jakab Dezső from Budapest, which they built between 1911 and 1913. The construction of the palace was part of a nation-wide program to strengthen urban values by investing in culture, administration and economy, initiated on the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, during the mandate of Mayor Bernády György.The new building was designed to house the music school, a language school, a library and a museum, and the exterior was supposed to reflect the greatness of Hungarian culture in Transylvania. The especially rich interior and exterior ornaments were made by the most famous artists of the time, being inspired by Hungarian history and prehistory, as well as by folk art. These are represented by bas-reliefs, mosaics, valuable stained glass windows specific to the Secession style, polychrome tiles made at the Zsolnay factory, stone and stucco ornaments, frescoes and gilded paintings, etc. Thus, Tîrgu Mureș coud witness the birth of one of the most specific creations of total art belonging to Hungarian Art Nouveau architecture!The separation and at the same time the connection of the different functions of the new corner building was a real challenge for the architects, but they managed to create a symmetrical masterpiece, with a horizontal structure, displayed on five levels. The heart of the building is the Concert Hall, which reaches a height of three levels. On the ground floor there is a foyer with two naves, on the first floor the Hall of Mirrors, and on the second floor there is the Small Hall. The third floor is entirely taken by the Museum.The FoyerAt the main entrance to the Palace of Culture there is an impressive square shaped foyer, extended symmetrically in both directions, with a huge mirror at each end. The domes of the hall are supported by columns decorated with black granite slabs and wrought brass elements, offering a sense of elegance to the space. The decoration was made in 1913 by Körösfői-Kriesch Aladár, the founder of the Gödöllő Art Colony in Hungary, together with his disciples.The paintings with floral motifs, enriched with a dynamic linear structure, create an oriental atmosphere, enhanced by both the golden glow of the ornaments and the warm light that enters through the yellow stained glass windows above the entrance.The Concert hallThe concert hall’s main entrance opens from the foyer. It has a capacity of 800 seats and it dominates the central part of the building, being vertically extended on all three levels. The program for decorating the hall was designed by the architect couple Komor and Jakab, in accordance with Mayor György Bernády’s requests. Thus, the ornamentation was inspired by Transylvanian folk art, using floral and animal motifs, while the chromatic world of the room is dominated by light purple, in harmony with the deep red of the curtains and the gold, contrasting the black furniture.In the middle of the discreetly shaped dome ceiling there is an imposing Secession-style chandelier, made of lacquered brass and glass beads. The hall was completed with an organ ordered from the Rieger organ factory in Silesia and assembled in 1913, with 4463 tubes and 63 registers.The Hall of Mirrors Probably the most representative room in the Palace of Culture is the Hall of Mirrors, located on the first floor. This impresses first of all, through the 12 stained glass windows of supreme value, made in the workshop of Róth Miksa in 1913. The side compositions were created according to the drawings of Toroczkai Wigand Ede. The stained glass windows on the left represent scenes from everyday Transylvanian life and details from traditional Szekler architecture. The paintings on the right illustrate Szekler legends. But the most spectacular are the four stained glass windows in the middle, representing Hungarian folk ballads with a vibrant chromatic, whose plans were made by Nagy Sándor, one of the representative figures of the artistic colony of Gödöllő.The Small HallLocated on the second floor, above the Hall of Mirrors, the Small Hall was created to host chamber concerts, lectures and literary readings. The ornamental painting of the Small Hall - with a rich and vivid colour palette, red, green and yellow, on a dark background - was made by Falus Elek, the artist in charge of painting the staircases and the Hall of Mirrors.Today, the Palace of Culture is hosting important cultural and artistic institutions, such as the County Library, the History Museum, the Art Museum and the Philharmonic. Inside the palace you can visit the Foyer, the Staircases, the Mirror Hall, the Small Hall and the Great Hall (concert hall), the Hungarian Classical Art Gallery, the Modern Romanian Art Gallery, as well as the commemorative exhibitions dedicated to Mayor Dr. György Bernády and Mayor Dr. Emil Dandea.The Palace of Culture in Târgu Mureș still holds a special place on the international map of the Art Nouveau movement and style, being one of the most beautiful achievements of this style in Transylvania!Opening HoursSeptember 1 - April 30 :Tuesday - Friday: 9.00 - 16.00Saturday - Sunday: 9.00 - 14.30Closed on MondaysTicket office closes at 15.30 and 14.00.Opening hours 1 May - 31 August:Tuesday - Friday: 9.00 - 17.30Saturday - Sunday: 9.00 - 15.30Closed on MondaysTicket office closes at 17.00 and 15.00.The Museum is closed on Public Holidays.Galleries may occasionally be closed for maintenance or long-term refurbishment.
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Museum of Ethnography and Popular Art - Târgu Mureș
The museum is located in the Toldalagi Palace, one of the most important monuments of the city dating from the 18th century. The museum's heritage contains valuable ethnographic collections, from popular costumes and interior textiles to wooden objects, ceramics, metal and bone objects, as well as religious cult objects, wooden and glass icons or contemporary art creations. The first acquisitions of ethnographic objects from the collections of the ethnography section were made by Aurel Filimon at the beginning of the 20th century. The enrichment of the museum’s patrimony was continued through other acquisition campaigns that aimed at completing the ethnographic collections, in order to represent all the ethnographic areas of Mureş county (the Transylvanian Plain, the Târnava valleys, Gurghiu Valley, Upper Mureş Valley, Niraj Valley). Ethnographic exhibitions, with various themes are an expression of interculturality, of coexistence between different nationalities and ethnic groups in this region. Opening HoursTuesday – Friday: 9.00 a.m. – 4.00 p.m.Saturday: 9.00 a.m. – 2.00 p.mSunday: 9.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.mMonday: closedThe Museum is closed on Public Holidays.
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Teleki Library - Târgu Mureș
In 1802 Count Teleki Sámuel, the Chancellor of Transylvania, opened the first public library in Transylvania. The library wing of the building was raised between 1799 – 1802 and the library had the role of bringing people closer to books. It provided approximately 40.000 volumes, gathered over six decades, among which there were the first prints of the most representative scientific works, there was also a reading room for in-depth study of the valuable books and manuscripts. After World War II, this collection was completed with the 80.000 volumes of the former Calvinist College of Tîrgu Mureș, as well as with private and confessional collections from the region. Today the treasures of Teleki Library can be admired in the original hall, on the ground floor of the building.***“Entering the library I was shaken by amazement” – wrote Ferenc Kazinczy in 1816 when he visited the Teleki Library. The basic collection of today’s Teleki-Bolyai Library was made available for the general public by Count Samuel Teleki, Chancellor of Transylvania, on 18th October 1802. Since 1965, the institution has borne the name Teleki-Bolyai Library.It is really difficult to prioritise the treasures of the Teleki Library, its shelves and showcases boast with incunabula, about two thousand Hungarian books, famous Bibles, the basic works of 16th - 18th century Europe’s scholars’, 17th century hand-painted atlases, countless volumes published by the most famous European publishing houses. After the World War II this collection was enriched with the 80,000 volumes of the former Calvinist College, as well as with other fragmentary confessional and aristocratic collections. The library’s oldest document is a 14th-century parchment codex, known as the Koncz Codex that on some of its pages bares another handwriting which is the sixth oldest Hungarian language monument from the first quarter of the 15th century, known as the Lines and Glosses of Tîrgu Mureș. The most representative volumes are on display in the main hall, while researchers, students and local historians can access a vast array of materials in the upstairs reading room.Today the former reading room houses the temporary exhibitions and can be visited along with the Bolyai Museum. The latter showcases objects and documents related to the two mathematicians, Farkas and János Bolyai. Alongside Farkas’ main work, the Tentamen (in which his son’s famous non-Euclidean geometry is included as an appendix) visitors can catch a glimpse of Farkas’ study and on a separating screen read selected copies of the 20,000 manuscripts of the two. During recent years the Teleki-Bolyai Library has played an active role in the life of the local community. The activities for kids are destined for school children, while the thematic, cultural and book-related events proved to be significantly popular among the general public. Opening HoursExhibitions:Tuesday-Friday: 10:00 - 18:00Saturday: 10:00-16:00Reading Room:Tuesday-Friday: 10:00 - 18:00Last admission half an hour before closing time!
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The Bolyai Museum - Târgu Mureș
The Bolyai Museum, which was founded in 1937, was originally set up in one of the chambers at the Library of the Calvinist College in Targu-Mures, showcasing the surviving personal items belonging to the two ingenious mathematicians. In 1955, the memorial museum and the library of the college were arranged in the right wing of the Teleki Library building, and a few years later, the Bolyai memorial room was moved to the ground floor, where it can be found today. In addition to their personal items, such as Bolyai Farkas' chess set, János Bolyai's geometric compases set, and a unique stove made by Bolyai Farkas, you can also see some pieces of their personal furniture, or the pseudosphere wooden model, representing the non-Euclidean geometry.Farkas BolyaiFarkas Bolyai was born in Bólya, Sibiu County on 9th February 1775, to a lower nobility family. He started his studies at Calvinist College of Aiud (Nagyenyed). Due to his advancement in mathematics and languages he was considered a child prodigy.Later on, he studied mathematics at the University of Göttingen. Here Farkas Bolyai became good friends with the famous mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. After his studies he settles in Cluj-Napoca, marries and his son János Bolyai is born on 5th December 1802. The Calvinist College of Târgu-Mureș offers Farkas a position, which he has taken starting with 4th May 1804. He teaches at the College for 47 years, not only mathematics, but physics, chemistry and astronomy as well. (Today this school bears his name.)Though he was a polymath, his primary field of work was mathematics. His first papers dealt with topics concerning the parallel lines. On 9th March 1832 the Hungarian Scientific Society makes him a corresponding member. Farkas’ main work is called Tentamen (Târgu-Mureș, 1832), which comprises his theories on several basic mathematical subjects, his results being ahead of his time. This work was also intended as a textbook for his students. Farkas Bolyai was an excellent teacher, who also was concerned with the reformation of education and a more rational organisation of the syllabus, in his studies also suggesting the solutions for this issue.Farkas Bolyai showed a great interest in practical matters as well: he devised a highly efficient stove; the model rapidly became popular throughout Transylvania. He was the author of the first Hungarian book on forestry. Among his manuscripts, we can find works on optics, plans for bridges and pharmaceutical recipes too.He had an artistic streak in him as well: he painted, played the violin, wrote treatises on the theory of music, what’s more, when he was young, he tried his hand at acting too. He wrote poems and plays (Öt szomorújáték-Five tragedies, Sibiu, 1817, A párizsi per – The Paris trial, Marosvásárhely, 1818.) and translated French, English and German literature.He died in Târgu-Mureș (Marosvásárhely), on 20th November 1856. He rests in the Protestant cemetery. János BolyaiJános Bolyai was one of the greatest personalities in the history of mathematics. He broke new grounds in science: the creation of Non-Euclidian geometry revolutionized geometry and the theory of physics and replaced Newtonian theories about the world.He was born in Kolozsvár, on 15 December, 1802. He was brought up in Marosvásárhely and attended the Protestant College. He showed a great interest in mathematics as a child. However, due to the limited financial possibilities of the family he couldn’t attend the University of Göttingen; instead, he went to the Military Academy of Vienna. The military career was a burden to him. He entered the army engineering corps and was sent to Temesvár, Arad and then to Olmütz; then, at the age of 30, he retired and moved home to Marosvásárhely. He lived a retiring life here and on his estate in Domáld, which the family had inherited from Farkas Bolyai’s mother.From a young age, János Bolyai was interested by the unsolved problems of mathematics, most of all the 9th axiom of Euclid, the Postulate of the Parallels. With hard work, he developed Non-Euclidian Geometry as early as in 1823. He wrote down his findings in his work entitled Scientia Spatii, which was only published in 1832, as an appendix to his father’s book Tentamen. One of the greatest achievements of the age, it still didn’t bring any change in Bolyai’s life. His name remained unknown for the world of science. The Teleki-Bolyai library keeps about 13,000 pages of his manuscripts, most of which are his philosophical work Tan (Teachings). His writer intended it as a comprehensive scientific work. Following the units on natural sciences and arts, the chapter entitled Üdvtan (Escatology) was meant to teach mankind the way to universal bliss.He died on 27 January, 1860. In 1911, his earthly remains were moved next to his father’s.(source: telekiteka.ro)Address: Teleki Library, Bolyai str. no. 17.Visiting program: Tuesday - Friday: 10 - 17:30
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Israel corner Museum - Târgu Mureș
The small museum is located inside a house, next to the synagogue in Tg. Mureș. Here visitors can learn more about the history of the city and the history of the Jewish community. The museum's collection includes Torah scrolls, books, rabbi’s clothing, family photo albums, furniture, portraits of celebrities from Târgu Mureș. The Synagogue is open for visitors daily from from Monday to Friday between 9-12.30. Visits must be announced at least one day prior to the arrival, by phone, mentioning the size of the group and the time of the arrival, on the following numbers: 0040 74500847, or 0040 265 261 810. Address: Aurel Filimon str., 21
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The Museum Of Natural Sciences - Târgu Mureș
The Museum of Natural Sciences in Târgu-Mureș can be found in the former building of the Museum of Industrial Szekler Art, built between 1890 and 1893.The building was designed by architect Kiss István in neoclassical style, combining elements of the Italian Renaissance and Greek elements, with statues and stained-glass windows, and has housed the Museum of Natural Sciences since 1952, when the first biologist, Kónya István, was assigned here. Today, the Museum of Natural Sciences holds valuable collections of paleontology, mineralogy-petrology, lower and upper plants, invertebrate and vertebrate animals, totaling about 60 000 items. The building is also accessible for the disabled.The main exhibition will be open from 14 December 2023 in the Department of Natural Sciences, from Tuesday to Friday from 9.00 to 16.00, on Saturday from 9.00 to 14.00 and on Sunday from 9.00 to 13.00. Closed on Mondays.Admission: 15 lei for adults, 7 lei for pensioners and 3 lei for studentsAddress: Str. Horea no. 24.
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The Archaeological and History Museum - Târgu Mureș
The museum in the fortress displays aspects of the region's history and promotes its cultural heritage. In addition to the most important archaeological relics and finds of the county, the exhibition offer is mainly in the field of material culture and built heritage, also promoting aspects of modern and contemporary history of the area.The Habsburg Army Officers’ buildingThe building consists of two 17th-century houses connected by a central wing. The western wing of the building housed the town hall in the 17th century. The present U-shaped plan was acquired in the 18th century due to Habsburg interventions, while the final appearance was accomplished after the building's rehabilitation in 1877. The Officers' Lounge on the first floor of the building dates from this period, where the original mural painting has been preserved (restored in 2010). The building was renovated between 2008-2014 by the Mures County Museum.The museum can be found inside the medieval citadel and it is promoting the history of the region and its cultural patrimony. It presents to the public the archeological patrimony of the area. Opening HoursTuesday – Friday: 09.00–17.00 Saturday – Sunday: 10.00–14.00 Monday: closed The Museum is closed on Public Holidays. Address: the citadel of Târgu Mureș, Avram Iancu str. no. 2
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