Piața Trandafirilor (Roses Square), Târgu Mureș

Piața Trandafirilor (Roses Square, Rózsák tere in Hungarian) is the central square and one of the main thoroughfares of Târgu Mureș. About 600 m long, it crosses the centre from the south-west, where it joins Piața Victoriei, to the north-east, where it divides into Strada Călărașilor, Piața Petőfi Sándor and Strada Revoluției. Before 1920 it was called Széchenyi tér. Its buildings belong to the protected urban ensembles "Piața Trandafirilor" (north-eastern part, LMI code MS-II-a-A-15451) and "Central area, commercial centre" (MS-II-a-A-15452). The square occupies the site of the town's old Great Market Square. In 1754, when the Royal Court of Justice (Tabla Regească, the supreme court of Transylvania) moved from Mediaș to Târgu Mureș, it first sat in the old town hall on the Great Square, until 1826, when it moved to the Kendeffy Palace on Strada Bolyai. Along the square stand the Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension (no. 1, 1925-1934), the Görög House, now the Military Club (no. 2, eighteenth century), the Apollo Palace (no. 5, 1820), the bell tower of the former Franciscan friary (no. 10), the Toldalagi Palace, home of the Museum of Ethnography and Folk Art (no. 11, 1759-1771), the Bányai House (no. 12, 1904), the former Butchers' Guild house (no. 13, 1888), the former Agrarian Bank (no. 26, 1909) and the Roman Catholic church of St John the Baptist, formerly the Jesuit church (no. 61, 1728-1754). All are listed historic monuments. The square has the equestrian statue of Avram Iancu in front of the Orthodox Cathedral, the statue of Gábor Bethlen (2020) and the statue of the Unknown Soldier. At the south-western end, on Piața Victoriei, stand the Palace of Culture and the former town hall, now the Prefecture, while the Târgu Mureș Citadel lies a few hundred metres to the north-east.