Bánffy Palace in Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County · Transylvania
About Bánffy Palace in Cluj-Napoca
Bánffy Palace takes up the eastern side of Union Square (Piața Unirii), facing St Michael's Church, and is the most representative Baroque building in Cluj and in the whole of Transylvania. It was built between 1774 and 1785 by Count György Bánffy, later governor of Transylvania, to plans by the German architect Johann Eberhard Blaumann, on the model of Western European town palaces: four two-storey wings around a square courtyard, a mansard roof and palatial façades facing the city. Emperor Francis I stayed here in 1817, and Franz Joseph in 1852 and 1887.
The façade on the square has a central projecting bay with a semicircular balcony on the upper floor, and on the attic the Bánffy coat of arms, held by winged griffins. On either side, between stone urns, stand six statues of classical gods and heroes — Mars, Pallas Athena, Diana, Apollo, Perseus and Hercules — carved by the sculptor Anton Schuchbauer. After the Bánffys, the palace served in turn as an official guest house, a casino, and a block of flats and shops; in 1925 a cinema was even built in the courtyard, and only demolished in 1974.
Since 1956 the palace has belonged to the Cluj-Napoca Art Museum, which moved in in 1962, after part of the restoration work, and opened to the public in 1965. Between 2019 and 2021, Cluj County Council restored the main façade, bringing back its ochre colour and original stone window surrounds, and then the eastern façade, towards Bolyai János Street.
What you can see
You enter beneath the triple gallery on the ground floor, which leads to the main staircase with three flights, each 2 m wide, the largest staircase of its kind in Transylvania. The inner courtyard has arcades on the ground floor and colonnades above. The temporary exhibition rooms are on the ground floor.
The permanent exhibition, the National Gallery, fills 15 rooms upstairs, with some 140 paintings and 15 sculptures from the 16th to the 20th century. The route begins with Transylvanian Orthodox icons and the late Gothic altarpiece of the church at Jimbor, moves on to 18th- and 19th-century portraits by Franz Neuhauser and Mișu Popp and the Expressionism of Nagy István and Aurel Popp, then to Theodor Aman, Nicolae Grigorescu, Ion Andreescu and Ștefan Luchian's flower paintings, and ends with Tonitza, Pallady, Petrașcu, Șirato, Ressu and the sculptures of Dimitrie Paciurea. The west wing, facing the square, keeps the best of the original décor: white wooden panelling and shutters with carved, gilded ornament.
Good to know
In 2019 a court returned three quarters of the palace to the heirs of a former owner, and since then the museum has partly been a tenant in its own building; in September 2026 Cluj County Council announced it intends to buy back the returned share. The museum is open as usual, but if you are planning a visit further ahead, check the opening hours on the official website.
- The attic of the façade on Union Square, with the Bánffy arms held by griffins and the statues of Mars, Pallas Athena, Diana, Apollo, Perseus and Hercules.
- The main staircase with three flights, each 2 m wide, the largest of its kind in Transylvania.
- The late Gothic altarpiece from the church at Jimbor, at the start of the National Gallery route.
- The room with Ștefan Luchian's flower paintings, one of the finest Luchian collections in the country.
- The square inner courtyard, with arcades on the ground floor and colonnades above.
Good to know before you go
- Getting there
By car: the palace stands on the eastern side of Union Square (Piața Unirii), the main square of Cluj. The city is reached via the A3/DN1 from Oradea (~150 km) and Turda (~30 km), the DN1 from Alba Iulia (~100 km) and the DN16 from Reghin; Bucharest is ~450 km away. Traffic is restricted in the old centre, so leave the car in a nearby car park and walk.
Public transport: from Cluj-Napoca railway station it is ~2 km to Union Square (~25 minutes on foot, along Strada Horea and over the Horea Bridge, or a few stops on the buses and trolleybuses to the centre). From Cluj International Airport, ~9 km away, bus A1 runs to the centre.
- Where to park
The palace has no car park of its own. In central Cluj you park on the street, paying by zone, or in the public car parks around the centre; from there it is a few minutes' walk to Union Square. At weekends and during events spaces in the centre fill up quickly.
- Fees & discounts
Permanent exhibition: adults 16 lei, seniors 8 lei, pupils, students, pre-schoolers and adults with moderate or mild disabilities 4 lei, groups of at least 10 people 12 lei per person. Temporary exhibitions have a separate ticket, 12 lei (with the same reductions), and a ticket for three exhibitions of your choice, including the permanent one, costs 28 lei. The amateur photography fee, without flash or tripod, is 20 lei per person. Entry is free on Museum Day and the European Heritage Days, and all year round for pupils and students of fine arts and architecture schools and faculties, members of the Romanian Fine Artists' Union, ICOM card holders and children with disabilities, with their companions. Tickets can also be bought online at bilete.macluj.ro.
- Rules
Photography in the permanent exhibition is allowed only with the photo fee, without flash or tripod; group photo shoots need the management's approval, with a request sent at least 72 hours in advance. Guided tours are available for groups of at least 10 people — 7 lei per person in Romanian or Hungarian, 130 lei per group for an hour in English — booked with the museum office at least 24 hours ahead.
- Facilities
guided tours in Romanian, Hungarian and English for groups, by appointment · online tickets · museum education programmes and workshops for schools
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