The Trajan Park Area

In 1891, the chief engineer of the city – Dávid Busch – launched a development project for the rearrangement of the Trajan Park area (Széchenyi tér), which is one of the important small squares of the city. The public institutions around this square were built in the 18^th century. We can safely consider it to be the central district of the county’s administrative institutions, as well as the central area of the city’s judicial establishments.

Trajan Square was built within the perimeter of the old administrative center of the city of Olosig, with an exit through Republicii Street (Fő utca). The square is surrounded by important public edifices: on the left side is the old building of the Bihor County Council (former home to the Bihor Comitatus (1760) and the Bihor Prefecture), along with the penitentiary (1882), while on the opposite side is the elegant building of the National Bank of Romania subsidiary (1911-1912) (the former Austro-Hungarian Bank) – while the towering edifice of the Bihor Tribunal (1898) occupies the center, followed by the Palace of the Bar Association (1908-1909). The row of institutions continues with Oltea Doamna School, which features two older wings, as it was also the former building of the City Hall of Olosig (1820), as well as the State Civil School (1897-1901). It is then followed by the headquarters of the Bihor Police Inspectorate (the former building of the Bihor High Court of Justice), which is neighbored by the building of the Greek-Catholic Theological Seminary and the Church of “Sfântul Gheorghe” (”Saint George”) (1858).

The Building of the Bar Association

The Building of the Bar Association on George Enescu Street (Ritook Zsigmond utca) no. 1 is next to Trajan Park. The land was bought by the municipality in 1906 from the Bihor landlord Béla Amant, and it neighbors a built-up land of the Roman-Catholic Bishopric.

The Palace of the Bar Association was built based on the plans of architect Kálmán Rimanóczy, Jr. in the Secession style, and was carried out by the entrepreneur and constructor József Reisinger. The construction is built around an inner courtyard in the shape of the letter ”L” and has two upper floors. The Palace was built to serve as a public institution and to offer apartments for rent. The office of the bar association was stretched across a vestibule, the main hall on the first floor and one other room.

The longer side of the building, the one on George Enescu (Ritook Zsigmond) Street, is divided into six axes, and the stories extend outside of the wall quite visibly. The shorter side of the building has a single vertical axis, which itself extends outside of the wall on the upper floors. The two sides are united through a rounded corner that ends with a semi-dome topped with a gigantic spire. The architect gave up on the luxuriant ornamentation of the façades, but, in compensation, accentuated the curvilinear volumetry. The floral ornaments are set in relief on the rounded balcony. The building has been renovated, and is still the headquarters of the bar association to this day.