Renaissance in Oradea and the Prime Merdian

In this paper we are presenting a brief history of the city, with a focus on the astronomical activities during this period, emphasizing the role played by the city of Oradea in European Renaissance. Fascinated by eclipses and other astronomical phenomena, Bishop Joan Vitéz established an astronomical observatory in Oradea from 1459, and probable the ¿rst of the kind in Europe by the help of Regiomontanus and Georg Peurbach. Georg Peurbach sent to John Vitéz a sky map and helped him for producing an accurate table of eclipses, using the precise data known at that moment. The table was computed and reduced to the Oradea meridian, and becomes so called the Tabulae Varadiensis. The tradition of research in astronomy is carried on in present days by teachers and students from Oradea at the astronomy club Meridian zero".