The city of Oradea, or Nagyvárad, had been captured by the Turks in 1474 after a protracted siege.

Their mostly tolerant policies towards others peoples ensured that the city has become an ethnic mosaic of Romanians, Hungarians, Austrians, Slovaks, Hebrews, Ruthenians and Turks, causing Oradea to grow as an urban area starting with the sixteenth century.

After the Ottoman invasion of Hungary in the first third of the sixteenth century, the city has become a constant point of contention between the Principality of Transylvania, the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy.

The Peace of Várad, mediated in 1538 by Zápolya's adviser, the Paulist bishop György Martinuzzi (Juraj Utje-senovic, “Friar George”), is concluded between Emperor Ferdinand I and John Zápolya here on February 4, 1538, in which they mutually recognize each other as legitimate monarchs of a divided Hungary.

Ferdinand takes western Hungary with Croatia.