Cluj-Napoca Municipality, 1900 Years Of Documentary Attestation

Romfilatelia introduces into circulation, on Wednesday, June 26th this year, the postage stamps issue Cluj-Napoca Municipality, 1900 Years of Documentary Attestation.

The two postage stamps of the issue appear as an authentic and valuable historical recognition of a locality that is attested as one of the first cities declared a municipality on the territory of today’s Romania 19 centuries ago.

The ancient name Napoca appears in Latin and Greek cartographic sources. The locality is positioned on the itinerarium pictum (a map) called Tabula Pentingeriana.

In Ptolemy’s geography, the form Napouka is mentioned. A locality named Napoca is first attested in Northern Dacia between December 10th, 107 and December 10th, 108 in the inscription of a military milepost discovered at Aiton.

Napoca was raised to the rank of a municipality during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (municipium Aelium Hadrianum Napoca). Constantin Daicoviciu indicated in his writings as the year of the foundation of the municipality the year 124. The same year is also recorded in the work Histoire de la Roumanie des origines à nos jours, Horvath-Paris Publishing House, 1970 (authors Constantin Daicoviciu, Ștefan Pascu, Miron Constantinescu).

The seat of the Roman province of Dacia Porolissensis was permanently established in Napoca, a locality raised by Marcus Aurelius to the rank of colony (Roman city). Septimius Severus later gave it special citizenship rights by assigning the qualification of lus italicum.

After the Roman retreat, the urban centres, including the Napoca colony, were abandoned, and historical sources about the settlement are few and incomplete. Regarding the continuity of habitation in the area, for the first time in 1173 we find the name of the Clus settlement mentioned and then Castrum Clus (1175).

After almost three centuries, the settlement was visibly transformed with the development of crafts and numerous Gothic-style constructions. In 1541, when the Turks turned Hungary into a pachalic, Cluj remained the most important economic, political and cultural centre of Transylvania, which became an autonomous principality under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. The settlement, which became a city, would keep its name of Cluj.

The year 124, mentioned above, was used in 1974 as the basis for the 1850th anniversary of the elevation of the Napoca settlement to the rank of a municipality and the change of the name of the municipality of Cluj to Cluj-Napoca. The event was also marked in philately through a dedicated issue in April 1974.

We mention that Constantin Daicoviciu’s hypothesis regarding the year 124 was subjected to a process of reanalysis resulting in arguments that assume the attestation of the raising of the Napoca settlement to the rank of municipium between the years 117-123 and a cautiously formulated conclusion that “there are no sources at the moment that allow establishing the precise date when the locality of Napoca was granted the status of a municipium”.

It should be mentioned that in the online environment, in the Encyclopaedia of Romania and in works released in Cluj-Napoca, all information records the year 124 as the year of the municipium Napoca (see also Actual de Cluj: “Cluj-Napoca Turns 1900 years...”, January 5th, 2024).

The postage stamp with the face value of Lei 5 reproduces the image of an altar stone with the inscription NAPOCA (2nd century AD) alongside the reproduction of an engraving presenting an overview of Cluj in 1617.

The postage stamp with the face value of Lei 10 reproduces the image of the Central Square in Cluj in 1830.

The First Day Cover presents in its graphics the image of a panoramic photo of Unirii Square in Cluj-Napoca.

Romfilatelia thanks Mr. George Cristian Cupcea, Ph.D., Manager of the National Museum of Transylvanian History, University Professors Sorin Nemeti, Ph.D. and Ioan Bolovan, Ph.D. from ‘Babeş-Bolyai’ University of Cluj-Napoca and the photographer Ștefan Socaciu for the collaboration and documentary support granted to the development of this postage stamps issue.