bg Oradea

Apollo Palace

- Calea Republicii 12 -
On the plot where the current four-story residential and commercial was built once stood the inn called Apollo, which was built in 1820. After almost a century, the building had deteriorated considerably. So, in 1910, the officials decided that after demolishing the old inn, a new palace would be built bearing the same name. The new building was constructed in a period between 1912 and 1914 according to a design of the Hungarian architect . In the spring of 1911, he presented the project, and the Technical Services and the commissions proposed that the municipality hold an auction for the erection of the building. The auction was held in March 1912 and Kálmán Rimanóczy won it, as he made the best offer. Unfortunately, he was never able to see the end result, as he died on July 12, 1912. The architect’s widow asked the Municipal Council, who commissioned the construction, to task the architect and engineer Krausze Tivadar with the coordination of the construction.

In order to obtain income, the municipality offered the rooms of the building for rent. Given the outbreak of the First World War, it was difficult to find tenants for all of the rooms, the café on the first floor, the three luxury apartments, and the workshops on the third floor. On May 14, 1914, there was news that claimed that all of the apartments in the Apollo Palace had been sold. On December 5, 1914, the City's Café opened its door on the first floor, which over the years became a meeting place for medics, merchants, local industrialists, and the city’s youth.
The building is shown in an old colorized postcard
On top of the corner of the building, which is built in the style of Art Nouveau, you can see a beautifully decorated dome with a on top of it. The corners of the scaly sheet metal mansard roof are embellished with . This also counts for the top of the that stretch all the way up from the second and even beyond the fourth floor. On top of the southern facade, you can admire four statues of female figures, as well as three garland wreaths. The building is decorated with loads of other garlands wreaths, as well as , , and . In addition to all these decorations, the building also contains multiple , , and balconies, in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Another old colorized postcard that shows the building