Cluj-Napoca Piarists' Church - Wikipedia

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Cluj-Napoca Piarists' Church

Coordinates: 46.767814N 23.590399E

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Piarist Church (Romanian: Biserica Piaritilor, also known as

the Jesuit Church (Biserica Iezuiilor) or the University Church
(Biserica Universitii); Hungarian: piarista templom), located at 5
Str. Universitii, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and dedicated to the Holy
Trinity, was the first Roman Catholic church built in Transylvania
after the Protestant Reformation, as well as the province's first
Baroque church building. Among the city's more notable edifices, it
served as a prototype for numerous other churches in Transylvania.
It features a strong contrast between the sober exterior and a very
well-decorated, almost exuberant interior. A statue of the Virgin
Mary stood in front of the church until 1959, when the Communist
authorities moved it to another part of the city.

History
On 13 March 1718, Jesuit priests began a fundraising campaign in
order to build the church. Bishop Georgius Martonfi laid the
cornerstone; the church was completed in 1724 and consecrated the
following year by Bishop Joannes Antalfi. The Jesuits were
suppressed in 1773 by Pope Clement XIV, so in 1776 Empress Maria
Theresa transferred the church to the Piarists.

Main faade, lateral view.

The church was restored in 1775, 1831, 1943, 1970 and 2005-6.
On 12 August 1956, priests and some 5,000 lay members of the
Romanian Greek-Catholic Church (who appeared on very short
notice) organised a protest before the church. Its purpose was to
demonstrate that their church, banned in 1948, had not ceased to
exist, as the regime claimed. Initially they attempted to enter the
church and hold mass, but the Roman Catholic priests did not allow
them inside for fear of reprisals. Thus an open-air mass was held in
front of the church; Fr. Vasile Chindri in his sermon openly
criticised the Communist leadership before masses of worshipers.
Every priest who officiated at the liturgy was later arrested and
imprisoned. Among the lay persons punished was Vasile Frca,
president of the Cluj Tribunal in the interwar period, who served
nearly 8 years of a ten-year sentence, and his wife Eugenia.

Main faade, frontal view.

Description
The church has two clock towers, each 45 m high. There are three
narrow vertical windows above the entrance, meant to help
illuminate the interior. The main door is surrounded by rich
ornamentation; above it there is a bas-relief of the Trinity with the
Latin inscription Honori Sanctissimae Trinitatis ("In Honour of the
Most Holy Trinity"). There are two smaller doors to the left and the
right of this one; above each of them is a sculpture of a saint resting
in a niche Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, works of the

The church's interior.

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Cluj-Napoca Piarists' Church - Wikipedia

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Bavarian artist Johannes Knig. Previously, statues of saints John of Nepomuk and Aloysius Gonzaga, also
by Knig, stood near the side entrances.
In contrast to the simple exterior, the interior is lavishly ornamented. The building has a single nave, 45 m
long and 24 m high. There are three chapels on the sides, each with its own altar and adorned with several
paintings. On the walls are to be found the devotional plaques common to Roman Catholic churches, written
in Transylvania's main historical languages: Romanian, Hungarian, German and Latin.
The main altar near the choir is grandiose. On the upper part is the Latin inscription Magno Deo uni ac trino
laus virtus gloria ("To the one and triune great God praise, honour and glory"), between two angels. The
altar is dedicated to the Trinity. Upon it rests an icon of the Virgin Mary, painted on wood and framed in
metal; a number of people reported that it shed tears over a two-week period in 1699. This may be the
original wonder-working icon from Nicula. Below it are two statues of Jesuit saints, Francis and Ignatius,
brought from Vienna in 1726.
The pulpit, the work of Anton Schuchbauer, is decorated on the outside with relief carvings of the Four
Evangelists, and in between the pulpit and its crown there is a bas-relief with the most important Jesuit
saints. Saint Michael is depicted on the pulpit's crown.
Underneath the church building there is a crypt with 140 graves.

References
Lukcs Jzsef (2005). Povestea oraului-comoar. Scurt istorie a Clujului i monumentelor sale.
Cluj-Napoca: Apostrof. ISBN 973-9279-74-0.
Gheorghe Bodea (2002). Clujul vechi i nou. Cluj-Napoca: ProfImage. ISBN 973-0-02539-8.
Cluj-Napoca = Claudiopolis. Bucharest: Noi Media Print. 2004.
Cluj-Napoca - Ghid. Sedona. 2002.
Dorin Alicu; Ion Ciupea; Mihai Cojocneanu; Eugenia Glodariu; Ioana Hica; Petre Iambor; Gheorghe
Lazarov (1995). Cluj-Napoca, de la nceputuri pn azi. Cluj-Napoca: Clusium.
ISBN 973-7924-05-3.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cluj-Napoca_Piarists%27_Church&
oldid=746612660"
Categories: Churches in Cluj-Napoca Roman Catholic churches in Romania Piarist Order
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1724 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings
Baroque architecture in Romania Baroque churches in Romania 1724 establishments in Hungary
This page was last modified on 28 October 2016, at 13:26.
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