About

The beginnings of a museum-type establishment within Alma Mater Claudiopolitana date back to the second half of the 19^th century.

The development of this direction gained momentum with the initiatives to create museum collections for supporting the teaching and research activities of higher education institutions in Cluj. In this regard, the foundation of Franz Joseph University in 1872 represented an impetus towards the organization and enrichment of various collections, with the support of prominent personalities of the time. Some of the materials inherited from this institution became academic collections in 1919, after the First World War when in Cluj, Dacia Superior University was founded – later renamed King Ferdinand I University.

The ongoing collaboration between the museums and the related academic departments has resulted in an invaluable source of exhibits of great scientific value for the Museums, with detailed documentary information and analysis accompanying the exhibits.

In the past, some museums, such as the Mineralogy Museum, had an exclusively educational purpose and were closed to the public. In the early 2000s, with the opening of the University History Museum and the Vivarium, the cultural and educational significance and usefulness of museum access for all interested parties became obvious. Furthermore, over time, the BBU Museums have been visited by leading Romanian and foreign personalities. For example, among the many visitors of the University History Museum were King Michael I, chemist Jean-Marie Lehn, a Nobel Prize winner, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, Chancellor of the Pontifical Gregorian University, and the Polish historian Bronislaw Geremek.

Here are some of the highlights from the past of the BBU Museums:

• 1859: The Transylvanian Museum (Erdélyi Múzeum) was established, an institution linked to the beginnings of the collections that were later included in the Mineralogy Museum and the Zoological Museum.
• 1872: Franz Joseph University was established, with classes taught in Hungarian. Two departments were founded within the Faculty of Sciences – the Department of Mineralogy and the Department of Geology. Professor Antal Koch (1843–1927) was called from Budapest to teach geology at the Department of Mineralogy and Geology, respectively, and was also appointed director of the Institute of Geology. A geologist, petrographer, mineralogist, and paleontologist, Antal Koch published over 300 scientific papers, he substantially enriched the Mineralogy Collection and the Paleontology Collection and laid the foundations of the Museum of Mineralogy and Geology. Professor Gyula Szádeczky, who became head of the Department of Mineralogy in 1896, also significantly contributed to the development of the Mineralogy Collection.
• 1900: A part of the Mineralogy Collection was moved to the newly-raised central building of the university (today, M. Kogălniceanu Street, no. 1).
• 1912: Around this year, the building at Clinicilor Street, no. 5–7, was erected, which currently houses the Zoological Museum (on the ground floor) and the Vivarium (in the basement). The construction plan is identical to that of the Zoological Institute in Naples.
• 1919: Dacia Superior University was established in Cluj, with teaching in Romanian, later renamed King Ferdinand I University. In that year, the collections of the Museum of Mineralogy and the Museum of Paleontology and Stratigraphybecame academic collections connected to the respective departments. Scholar Gh. Munteanu-Murgoci, assisted by Cluj Professor Victor Stanciu, organized the Department and Institute of Mineralogy-Petrography. Professors Eugen Stoicovici and Valeriu Lucca also contributed to the organization of the Mineralogy Collection. In addition, we would like to highlight the contributions of biology professors such as Alexandru Borza and Emil Racoviță. The latter was the first head of the Department of General Biology in Cluj, established in 1920.
• 1960: Starting with this year, curators or researchers managed the Museum of Paleontology and Stratigraphy, a role previously held by the department heads Antal Koch (1872–1895), Gyula Szádeczky (1896), I. P. Voitești (1919–1936), Victor Stanciu (1937), Otto Protescu (1938–1946), Dumitru Iacob (1946–1957), and Dr. Doc. Ion Al. Maxim (1957–1960).
• 1965: A geologist-museographer position was created at the Mineralogy Museum. In the early days, there was no specialized museum staff, and the responsibility for activities related to the Educational Collection of Minerals and Rocks was assigned for relatively short periods to teaching staff usually at the beginning of their careers. Among them were curator Veturia Lucca (1924–1925), museum instructor Gheorghe Pop (1940–1941), and museum instructor Vasile Crăciun (1941–1943).
• 1975: The geologist-museographer position at the Mineralogy Museum was turned into a museographer position. A systematic inventory and reorganization of the previous educational collections began for integrating them into a dedicated museum space – a task that Iulia Țârlea-Hoțiu carried out until 1989.
• 1998: The construction of the Vivarium began with funds from Babeș-Bolyai University and the Faculty of Biology and Geology.
• April 2001: The University History Museum was established upon the initiative of the Rector’s Office of Babeș-Bolyai University. Until March 2007, it was located in the Faculty of European Studies building, at I.I.C. Brătianu Street, no. 22, in two rooms and later in five permanent exhibition rooms.
• 2001: The Vivarium was opened. Initially, it housed only a collection of reptiles and amphibians from the local fauna.
• 2002: The University History Museum began organizing temporary exhibitions on various science and university history topics. One of the first successful events was the exhibition 200 Years Since the Birth of János Bolyai (2002). Other exhibitions of the same type were Ten Years of Donations and Acquisitions at the History Museum of Babeș-Bolyai University (2011), 140 Years of Hungarian University Education in Cluj-Napoca (2012), and Marya Kasterska-Petre Sergescu: Polish-Romanian Intellectual Interactions (2013).
• 2002: The Mineralogy Museum opened its doors to the public following an initiative of the Rector’s Office of Babeș-Bolyai University.
• 2007: The University History Museum moved to a new location near the central building of Babeș-Bolyai University, at Mihail Kogălniceanu Street, no. 4, on the ground floor, where it still operates today.
• October 9, 2017: The Virtual and Documentary Museum of the Holocaust in Northern Transylvania was inaugurated, thus providing the public with a comprehensive museum experience, as the documentary collection of several hundred exhibits can be visited and consulted both in person at the Documentary Museum, located at Croitorilor Street, no. 13, and online, at the Virtual Museum, holocausttransilvania.ro.
• March 13, 2018: David Prodan Memorial Museum was inaugurated following an agreement between Babeș-Bolyai University, through the Academic Cultural Heritage Department, and Cluj-Napoca City Hall. The last home of the great historian David Prodan, located at Academician David Prodan Street, no. 1, has thus become a unique museum space and a cultural mini-center.
• January 20, 2020: Alexandru Duma Museum was inaugurated at Calea Moților, no. 11, rooms 502–503. Set up in the context of the centennial of Babeș-Bolyai University and dedicated to the First World War, the museum presents in a documentary setting the drawings of artist Alexandru Duma (1887–1916), made during the two years he spent on the front as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army. As such, this museum offers many opportunities for a different kind of revisiting the First World War.