Strada Republicii is Oradea's main pedestrian street, running north from the river to the Petőfi Park, and it concentrates the city's best Art Nouveau architecture in a single ten-minute walk. The Stern, Moskovits and Apollo palaces all face onto it, along with half a dozen lesser-known but equally elaborate Secessionist buildings.
The corso functions as Oradea's living room. Cafes and ice-cream stalls put their tables out on the pavement from April to October, students from the nearby university linger after lectures, and on Friday and Saturday evenings the whole street takes on the slow, drifting quality of a southern European passegiata. Walk it slowly with your head tilted up — the detail in the upper storeys is where the architects spent most of their effort.