Oradea (Hungarian Nagyvárad), city in northwestern Romania and capital of Bihor County, on the Crisul Repede River near the Hungarian border. Oradea is a railway junction, the commercial center of an important grape-growing area, and an industrial center with factories producing textiles, shoes, clothing, processed food, glass, machine tools, and agricultural machinery. Among the noteworthy features in the city are several churches, such as the parish church containing the remains of Ladislas I, king of Hungary (1040?-1095), who made the city a Roman Catholic bishopric in 1080. Oradea was ceded by Hungary to Romania following World War I (1914-1918). Occupied by Hungarian forces during World War II, it again passed to Romanian control after 1945. Population (1997 estimate) 223,288.
