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NATIONAL COLLEGE „HOREA, CLOSCA AND CRIŞAN”
FORMER HUNGARIAN CIVIL SCHOOL
October 24, 2017
FORMER ARCHEOLOGY MUSEUM
October 24, 2017NATIONAL COLLEGE „HOREA, CLOSCA AND CRISAN”
Immediately after the Union, beginning with February 1st 1919, the first secondary school institution of Transylvania opened its gates to the Romanian pupils, under the name of „Michael the Brave” High School of Alba Iulia. It was the first such institution because all the other newly formed Romanian high schools in Transylvania were opened only in September 1919, at the beginning of the new school year.
In the first phase of its existence, „Michael the Brave” High School did not have its own building, so it changed its locations in several spaces in the city.
The construction work for the new location began in 1923, on a generous space that had to ensure the personnel houses as well. In the western part of the citadel, on the Romans’ Plateau, there were no houses at that time and the plans of the municipality were to determine the development of the city in that area. However, this project was not realized because the building of the high school alone was finished in the entire interwar period, more specifically in 1940. The growth of the city on the western side, planned in the interwar years, was realized only in the Ceausescu era.
Before the work was finished in order to make the high school fully functional, the building was used by other institutions as well: here was the headquarters of the Royal Residence of Mures County (as a result of the administrative reorganization in counties – ten large administrative units in the entire Grand Romania – that took place in 1938, Alba Iulia becoming the capital of Mures County) but also the 20th Infantry Division and the School Inspectorate. Under the name „Michael the Brave High School for boys” (the schools were not mixed in that time), the edifice began to function according to its purpose beginning with the school year 1940/1941.
Over time, the high school developed a rich library (10,000 volumes in 1937), a collection of natural sciences and a museum. The quality of the teaching personnel represented an important argument in the growth of the high school prestige. High class professors taught here, important people for the local scientific and cultural environment, people like Enea Zefleanu, Eugen Hulea, Leonte Opris, Virgil Cucuiu, etc.
From 1965 it changed its name in „Horea, Closca and Crisan” Secondary School (then high school and college).
Scientific consultant: Tudor Roșu, PhD historian
Translation made by: Ciprian Dobra, PR expert
The State High School of Alba Iulia was the first of its kind to be established in Transylvania after the 1918 Union. Founded on 1 February 1919, the high school was called „Mihai Viteazul” (Michael the Brave).
The new educational establishment didn’t have a place of its own and changed several places in the first phase of existence during the interwar decades. The first place was the building which currently hosts the „Regina Maria” High School of Music and Fine Arts. Its courses started with 300 students who were distributed in five classes.
The foundation stone of the new high school headquarters was laid in 1923, on a four-hectare plot west of the citadel, on the Roman Plateau. The works were completed only in 1940, but before being functional, the building had still served as headquarters for other institutions. In 1938, for instance, Alba Iulia became the capital of Mures County land whose Land Royal Residence activated in the high school building. The building began to serve the purpose for which it was built from 1940-1941 school year. The high school was however evacuated just four years later when the building entered the service of the Soviet army which organized a military hospital here. The quality of the teaching staff was an important argument in raising the prestige of the high school. The high-ranking professors who taught here were important people at least for the local scientific and cultural environment. The high school changed into the Secondary School „Horea, Closca and Crisan” in 1965. Nowadays, it still bears the names of the leaders of 1784 Revolt, but it has the rank of National College, being one of the prestigious secondary school institutions in Alba County.
