The center of Cluj was a green oasis in 1970! A document postcard was saved and restored – PHOTO

The center of Cluj was an oasis of greenery until 1990, but then there was a declension during the term of mayor Gheorghe Funar, continued by the “great concreting” done by mayor Emil Boc.

A postcard from 1970 shows the center of Cluj, more precisely Piața Libertății (currently Piața Unirii), from a less usual perspective.

The vintage postcard has been refurbished and in the picture we can see the gorgeous islands of greenery, with the immaculate lawn, the flower beds and the gorgeous fir trees near the Church of Saint Michael. Today everything has disappeared, and young people can only see how it was in pictures.

How the destruction of Union Square began

Mayor Gheorghe Funar began the destruction of Pieta Unirii, in 1995, when excavations were made and Roman relics were discovered. In order to stir the nationalist spirits, he did not allow the filling of the huge pit in front of the statue of Matthew Corvinus for several years.

Only when Emil Boc came to power did things start to return to normal. The normal thing, however, was that in 2010 the project of removing the green area and installing granite tiles in the whole square started. Later, the street in the western area was also turned into a pedestrian area, and now there are beautiful terraces there. this expansion was probably the most successful part of the whole project, because the area became pedestrianized.