St. Michael's Church, Cluj-Napoca

The Roman Catholic St. Michael's Church stands in the middle of Unirii Square, the main square of Cluj-Napoca, right next to the Matthias Corvinus monument. It is the Roman Catholic parish church of the old town and one of the best-known symbols of the city. The church was built on the site of an older chapel dedicated to St. James. The oldest surviving document about it is a letter of indulgence issued in Avignon in 1349 for those who contributed to the works. Construction proceeded in several stages during the 14th and 15th centuries; above the west portal are the coats of arms of Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary and Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, which suggests the works were largely completed during his reign. Matthias Corvinus was baptised here. After the Reformation the church was in turn Lutheran, Calvinist and, from 1566, Unitarian, and early in the 18th century it returned to the Roman Catholics. The old tower was destroyed in the fire of 1697, rebuilt in Baroque style and demolished after the earthquake of 1763. The present Gothic Revival tower was begun in 1837 and completed around 1860. Several princes of Transylvania were elected or installed here, among them Gabriel Bethlen in 1613. It is a three-aisled Gothic hall church, about 70 metres long overall. The tower is 76 metres high, 80 metres including the cross. Worth seeing are the west portal with Sigismund's coats of arms and the statue of St. Michael, the Schleunig Chapel (completed around 1481), with the most important surviving frescoes, the Renaissance stone frame of the sacristy door, dated 1528, and the Baroque pulpit by Johannes Nachtigall and Anton Schuchbauer. Between 2018 and 2022 the church underwent a full restoration and was reconsecrated on 13 August 2022; the project received a European Heritage Europa Nostra award in 2024. The church is open for services and visits and often hosts organ concerts; visitors are asked to respect the services. The church is a category A historic monument, LMI code CJ-II-m-A-07469, and lies within the urban ensemble "Historic centre of the city of Cluj". It belongs to the Roman Catholic parish of St. Michael, in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Alba Iulia. Did you know that on 18 May 1944 the Roman Catholic bishop of Transylvania, Áron Márton, preached a sermon in this church publicly condemning the persecution and deportation of the Jews?