Built in the mid-fifteenth century, the building of the Roman Catholic Parish has fulfilled various roles in the course of time.
It housed the first Unitarian College and hosted the Emperor Joseph the Second when passing through the city of Cluj. During the communist period – due to its central location – the building of the parish was one of the premises of Securitate [the Secret police agency of Communist Romania].
City center is for each community the center for its social life. So it was and still is the case of Cluj. The decision to build a civic center was imposed by the fact that the citadel of Cluj was located on the main commercial road of the Middle Ages which connected Transylvania to the Western Europe. The second half of the 19th century was characterized by an increase of town-planning concerns from the part of town councilors, their concerns being focused on systematizing Cluj.
The first proposals came in 1862 and convey the idea that St. Michael should be the center of the city. The idea was widely shared and therefore other buildings have also been erected around the church.
One of the representative buildings of the new architectural ensemble is the building of the Roman Catholic Parish. The construction of the building was started in 1450 on the initiative of Sleunig Gergely, the first Parish of Cluj of those times. It was a specific building in the Gothic style. There’s a blazon above the parish’s door with the inlaid initials S. G, in the memory of the founder of the building.
In 1477, the vicar Sleunig Gergely expanded the original building. After the Reformation, when the Protestants took over the parish, the Bishop David Ferenc inhabited the building. He was the first Bishop of the Unitarian church. In 1693 the building housed the first Unitarian college. It was renovated in 1799, when a bas-relief depicting the Archangel Michael was placed on the frontispiece of the gate.
After 1948, the building of the Roman Catholic parish was nationalized, in its greatest part. Thus, it became one of the headquarters of the Securitate.
Only the left wing of the building was left in the property of the Catholic Church as it was housing priests’ dwelling homes. At the insistence of the current prelate Nsgr. Dr. Cirják Árpád the building was restored to the church. Since 1989 until now, it has been renewed twice.
Text preluat de pe visitclujnapoca.ro.
