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Cluj-Napoca National Theatre

theatre in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ1414007 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Lucian Blaga National Theatre (Romanian: Teatrul Național Lucian Blaga) is in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, sharing its building with the Romanian Opera.

Building

The theatre was built between 1904 and 1906 by the Austrian architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer, who designed several theatres and palaces across Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century, including the theatres in Iași, Oradea, Timișoara, and Chernivtsi (Romanian: Cernăuți). The project was financed using only private capital: Sandor Ujfalfy bequeathed his domains and estates from Szolnok-Doboka County to the National Theatre Fund from Kolozsvár.

The theatre opened on 8 September 1906 with Ferenc Herczeg's Bujdosók. Until 1919, as Cluj was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, it was home to the local Hungarian National Theatre (Hungarian: Nemzeti Színház). The last performance of the Hungarian troupe was Shakespeare's Hamlet, September 30, 1919.

Since 1919, when Cluj passed under Romanian administration, the building has been home to the local Romanian National Theatre and Romanian Opera, while the local Hungarian Theatre and Opera received the theatre building in Emil Isac street, close to the Central Park and the Someșul Mic River.

After the Second Vienna Award of 1940 and the annexation of Northern Transylvania by Hungary, the building was again the home of the Hungarian Theatre. On 31 October 1944 the Romanian and Hungarian actors celebrating the freedom of the city held a common benefit performance for Russian and Romanian wounded soldiers.

The hall has a capacity of 928 places.

Editorial summary

“Cluj-Napoca National Theatre” enters the record as theatre in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cluj-Napoca, National and Theatre can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1904, 1906, 1919, 1940—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1906. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Cluj-Napoca, National and Theatre.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Cluj-Napoca National Theatre” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cluj-Napoca, National and Theatre provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1414007. VIAF identifies the subject as 129069058. The Library of Congress control number is n85108794. Authority coordinates are 46.770, 23.597. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1904, 1906, 1919 and 1940.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Cluj-Napoca National Theatre”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Cluj-Napoca National Theatre primary sources, Cluj-Napoca National Theatre archive and Cluj-Napoca research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Cluj-Napoca National Theatre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.