The Central Park. Creating the Central Park had been one of the first initiatives of urban remodeling of the city at the end of the 19th century. Its purpose had been the creation of a leisure spot in the close proximity of the city center. The initial name of the area field was ants’ grove situated on the bank of the river Somes. At the beginning of the 19th century this spot was visited by all citizens of Cluj, the furrier János Meleg provided the public with refreshments.
In 1827, the Women’s Charity Organization will rent the grove with the intention to create a “place suitable for longer strolls” and a beer garden based on a contract of 12 months. This contract would also determine the municipality to initiate and sponsor some of the works necessary to drain and consolidate the land that had been a swampy area frequently flooded by the river.
In the year 1833, together with the return of the Gubernium a decision will be made on how to spend the gathered money on the development of the park. On this occasion they will establish and name the members of the Promenade comity, a council made up of important members of the urban community; they will also employ the gardener József Schütz to plant, clean and maintain the park. The park itself had been originally founded on the 22nd April 1838 and after two years the engineer Sámuel Hermann was entrusted with the design of the park.
They have exploited the irregular shape of the land by creating a triple alley functioning as a main axis of the entire composition. One of the provisions of the project had been to take into consideration the height of the field.
By demolishing of the city’s medieval walls they obtained enough material to drain the whole area. Huge wholes had been dug and filled with organic material in order to plant the trees of the park. The organic material, was collected from the area of today’ Mihai Viteazul, Avram Iancu and Stefan cel Mare squares, all of these spots previously served as location for the animal fairs of the age.
The above mentioned comity functioned between the years 1860 and 1866. The project of the lake had been overtaken by the architect Anton Kagerbauer, the works started in the year 1871. The following important stage in the development of the park had been triggered by the Hungarian millennium celebrations. In 1897 in the close vicinity of the park different pavilions will be erected that reverberate the taste of the age in park design: the Skating Pavilion, the Chios, the fountain, the brass band pavilion all of which were designed by Lajos Pákei, the famous architect from Cluj. The last three pavilions had been part of the Central Garden ensemble, rendered on an axis similar to the famous Sanssouci Palace of Potsdam.
The adjacent buildings had been completed in 1874 when they have finished the overly decorated Summer Theatre in the close proximity of the building. The latter edifice had been actually transformed by the architect Henrik Zimmermann from a wooden warehouse used for storage into a venue for the summer seasonal performances of the theatre based on M. Kogălniceanu street. This had been a very bold step as a wooden building was, at the time, considered unacceptable from a functional and architectural point of view, and it will be replace by a modern edifice built between 1090-1910 and designed by the modernist architects from Budapest Géza Markus and Frigyes Spiegel.
Throughout the 20th century the park will benefit from many modern changes as the introduction of public illumination on the main alley and the expansion of the lake. The latter alteration will bring about the isolation of the skating pavilion on a little island in the center of the lake.
In 1900 due to the extension of the park’s green area the authorities will include an additional promenade situated at the bottom of the Citadel Hill named Elisabeth Promenade after the Austrian Empress. It was designed as a long curvy lane of 420 m, at the center of which there was a platform of Belvedere hill. The unveiling of the Queen’s bust had happened on this platform on 20th August 1902, the statue was made by Alajos Stróbl. This small area communicated with the park via the Elisabeth Bridge, a metal bridge of 35 m built over the Somes river in the same year.
In the year 1940 the famous architect Károly Kós designed a building meant to house the exhibitions of the Transylvanian artists, this building now hosts the painting workshops of the Art and Design University.
The park was declared a historical monument and it was one of the first gardens in Eastern Europe meant to be used by the larger public. It is still considered to be the most important leisure spot and Promenade according to the citizens of Cluj.