Hotel „Ardealul”, with its historical name „White Cross Grand Hotel”, was founded in 1841 and bears a long-standing tradition. Situated in the city’s central area, next to The “Ioan Slavici” Classical Theatre, the hotel continues to welcome its guests in its 146 rooms.
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Loading...History
In 1868, after the inauguration of Arad-Alba Iulia railway, the coachmail’s activity on Eminescu Street ceases. Therefore, the building becomes the premises of the White Cross Hotel. In 1872, more than 300 prominent Romanians from Western Transylvania gathered here under the lead of Alexandru Mocioni, drafting a programme of national claims and creating a Romanian political organization.
The Romanian Cultural Association of Arad was created in this building and in 1872 a political organization of the Romanians from Western Transylvania was developed as well. Throughout the decades, the hotel hosted notable personalities of cultural and artistic background, such as: George Coșbuc, I.L. Caragiale, Duiliu Zamfirescu, Cincinat Pavelescu, Octavian Goga, George Enescu, Jules Massenet, François Coppée, Ady Endre and Arany Janos.
In the hotel’s festive hall, concerts by Franz Liszt (1846), Johann Strauss the Younger (1847), Johannes Brahms (1879) and Pablo Cassalis (1912) were held. The piano played by Franz Liszt in the hotel’s festive hall is nowadays exhibited in the local Museum.
Architecture
The hotel was built by Franz Mahler on the site of an ancient inn from the XVIIIth century, in neo-classical style, and restored in 1974. The mailcoach station in front of the motel, situated at the crossroads of the routes of Viena-Arad-Sibiu to Transylvania and Banat determined the motel’s initial name, ”The White Cross”.
Interesting facts
The hotel’s festive hall bears an interesting history: where it had once hosted concerts of musicians such as Franz Liszt or Johann Strauss the Younger, in recent years, the hall became a cinema under the name of ”Mureșul”, was afterwards morphed into a dance club, while today it serves as headquarters of a neo-protestant church called ”Metanoia”.
