The edifice, most commonly known by the locals as “Biserica cu Luna” – “The Church with the Moon”, is one of the emblematic buildings of the town. Petru Petrovici, the bishop of Arad, set the headstone in 1784 and the constructions were completed in 1790, following the plans of the architect Éder Jakab. The church was hollowed in 1832, after the interior decorations were finished.  

The church escaped the great fire in 1836 and so it has still preserved its original shape representing a valuable and interesting joining of the Byzantine and Occidental Baroque art. In 1920, after the Orthodox Bishopric in Oradea was founded, the church was raised to the rank of a cathedral. It possesses a series of unique decorative elements such as: the only portrait of Horia that is considered to be authentic, or a mechanism made by Georg Ruppe in 1793 and set in the tower of the cathedral, representing a globe painted half in black and half in yellow, which shows the phases of the moon.
                                                        

 

It is one of the oldest ecclesiastic buildings in town. The construction was started in 1720 and was finished only in 1741. For a time, the church became the Bishopric’s Cathedral.

Firstly, it was composed of one nave and a semicircular apse. In 1756 the church was hallowed by Bishop Forgách Pál. The tower was arisen in 1800, after Bishop Csáky Miklós failed in building it in 1738.

The “Saint Great Mary” Roman Catholic Church is the most important monument of the classical baroque architecture in Transylvania. The construction was started in 1752 at the initiative of Bishop Forgách Pál, following the plans made by the famous architect of the Viennese court, Franz Anton Hillebrandt. The Church was only hallowed in 1780 by Bishop Kollonitz László.

Two other architects brought their contribution to the construction of the building: Giovanni Battista Ricca and Johann Michael Neumann. In 1991 the cathedral was arisen to the rank of „basilica minor”.