Oradea [key], Hung. Nagyvárad, Ger. Grosswardein, city (1990 pop. 228,956), W Romania, in Crişana-Maramureş, near the Hungarian border. It is the marketing and shipping center for a livestock and agricultural region. Oradea is also an important industrial city with manufactures of machinery, mining equipment, and chemicals. There are health resorts nearby. The city was made (1083) the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop by King Ladislaus I of Hungary. Destroyed (1241) by the Tatars, it was rebuilt in the 15th cent. Oradea was held by the Turks from 1660 to 1692. Hungary ceded it (1919) to Romania after World War I, but Hungarian forces occupied the city during World War II. About half the population is Magyar. Most of the city's architecture is baroque, dating from the reign of Maria Theresa.
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