The Black Eagle Palace (Romanian: Vulturul Negru) in Oradea is an architectural masterpiece in the center of this old Transylvanian town. The ensemble built between 1907-1909 on the base of the old Eagle guesthouse.
In the early 1900s, in Oradea spreads out a new style, regardless of the academics, forging the promises of a stylistic diversion based on ingenious and originality. Following the principles of 1900 Art in general and of the Austrian Secession in particular, the Secession style in Oradea closely re-evaluates an artistic formula that was to be completely different from the still dominating academic artistic tendencies. The newly created style had two great periods, the curved and floral line and the geometric purged form.
The Black Eagle Palace (1907-1909) designed by Komor Marcell and Jakab Dezso is a grandiose monument due to its verticality; the buildings are united by a metallic structure, having both a technical (framing stained glass) and decorative role. The interplay of the curving facades, the decorative display of stucco work alternating with bas-reliefs, exhibiting a floral and figurative theme, all these arranged in a symmetrical composition, enhance the grandeur of the edifice, originally meant to house a casino, a hotel, a restaurant and offices, grouped in 3 non symmetric bodies.
Incorporated into the architecture of the surrounding complex, a passageway covered overhead with lead glass lazily winds through a nest of shops and comes to a point where one of three paths can be chosen, each leading off into different sections of the city. The interior glass-covered passage has three entrances linking three streets, each entrance dominated by an eagle, the symbol of the building. The mark of the building the Black Eagle has been accomplished in 1909 in the K. Neumann workshop.
