Contents
- Historical Context
- Medical Education in Cluj (1776-1872)
- Faculty of Medicine, Franz Joseph University of Cluj (1872-1919)
- Faculty of Medicine, King Ferdinand University of Cluj (1919-1948)
- The Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy of Cluj-Napoca (1948-1991)
- Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Cluj-Napoca (1991-present)
Historical Context
Cluj-Napoca is the oldest and one of the most important university centers in Romania. The history of medical education in Cluj spans 250 years, rooted in a long institutional and cultural evolution that began in the 16th century. Following the fall of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary (1526) and the establishment of the autonomous Principality of Transylvania under Ottoman suzerainty (1541), Cluj experienced significant growth. It became one of the principality's principal craft centers, hosting dozens of guilds. Its geographical position at the crossroads of major trade routes linking Transylvania with Central and Eastern Europe contributed greatly to its prosperity.
The 16th century Protestant Reformation profoundly marked the history of Europe, and Cluj was no exception. After 1568, a new Protestant doctrine, Unitarianism, emerged in the city. At the same time, the ecclesiastical organization of the Catholic Church in Transylvania collapsed. Stephen Báthory, one of the few Transylvanian nobles who remained faithful to Catholicism, sought to revive the Roman Catholic Church in the principality through education. As King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania and Prince of Transylvania he invited the Jesuit Order to Cluj and in 1581 founded the Major Jesuit College. The Jesuits had one of the most effective educational systems in Europe.
The activity of the college remained under permanent threat in a city with a Protestant majority. In 1618, it was granted the right to carry out only mid-level educational activity. Since the end of the 17th century, however, in the context of Transylvania's incorporation into the Habsburg Monarchy, the new imperial administration took steps to strengthen the Jesuit College. From 1698, the Jesuit educational activity was continued by the Jesuit Academy (Collegium Claudiopolitanum or Academia Claudiopolitana). In 1774, Empress Maria Theresa ordered the establishment of the Faculty of Law. In 1776, the college came under the administration of the Piarists, a Catholic order dedicated to the education of the poor.
Within this broader academic and confessional framework, the foundations were laid for the emergence of formal medical education in Cluj, closely linked to the Habsburg state's growing interest in public health and professional training.
After the mid-18th century, the Habsburg Empire underwent a process of medicalization, through which public health became a state priority. This transformation developed under the reforms initiated by Empress Maria Theresa with the support of her personal physician, Gerard van Swieten, and later continued by Emperor Joseph II. The promulgation of the Generale Normativum in Re Sanitatis (1770) marked the most important medical reform of the era. The authorities promoted the reorganization of the healthcare system, the standardization of medical professions, and the elimination of untrained healers. From that point onward, surgeons, midwives, and pharmacists were required to undergo formal training and pass examinations before a medical board.
The Vienna School of Medicine and the Imperial and Royal Joseph Academy of Medicine in Vienna, founded by Joseph II (the Josephinum) for the training of military surgeons, became models for medical education throughout the Habsburg territories, including Transylvania. By the end of the 18th century, another type of institution had emerged within the empire: the Medical-Surgical Institute, which provided advanced professional training without having full university status. Such institutes operated in cities such as Graz, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Olomouc, and Cluj.
A historical clarification is important here: for a long period, physicians and surgeons held distinct professional statuses. Many physicians originated from the clergy, while surgery, often associated with bloodshed (Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine), was considered incompatible with ecclesiastical status and gradually excluded from universities as an inferior branch of medicine. Consequently, surgery was practiced by barber-surgeons organized in guilds. These practitioners nonetheless mantained connection with universities, where they assisted anatomists as prosectores.
In Cluj, these developments took institutional form in 1775, when Empress Maria Theresa informed the Transylvanian Government (Gubernium) that Joseph Laffer of Vienna had been appointed professor of surgery, anatomy, and obstetrics.
On 7 November 1776, Maria Theresa officially ordered the foundation of the Faculty of Medicine, promising its gradual expansion. In 1777, however, she informed the government that the project would be postponed.
Figure 1.The founding Decree of the Faculty of Medicine in Cluj, November 7, 1776.
Medical Education in Cluj (1776-1872)
The medical school project was not abandoned; instead, it evolved into a Medical-Surgical Institute. Since higher education in Cluj had been integrated into the network of Royal Academies by Joseph II, the institute functioned within the Royal Academic Lyceum (Lyceum Regium Academicum). After 1849, it became an independent institution.
The chief physician (protomedicus) of Transylvania served as director of the institute. Professors were appointed by the Imperial Court following public selection. Most were Transylvanian physicians of Hungarian origin, graduates of the universities of Vienna and Pest. Some also held positions on the Sanitary Commission and played an active role in combating epidemics.
The training program for surgeons lasted between two and three years. Unlike physicians, who studied for five to six years, surgeons did not receive extensive instruction in the natural sciences. Their education relied heavily on practical teaching. The midwifery course lasted several months and was taught in Romanian, Hungarian, and German.
Cluj was the first city to establish a separate department of ophthalmology in 1791, with the appointment of Ioan Molnar von Müllersheim as professor ophthalmology. He was the first Romanian physician with formal academic medical training. In 1792, he was ennobled by the emperor in recognition of his achievements. His inaugural lecture is considered the first scientific medical work published by a Romanian author.
Practical training took place at the Carolina (Karolina) Public Hospital, the city's first modern hospital, opened in 1818. It was named in honor of Empress Carolina Augusta, who had contributed to its funding. Separate departments of internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, and ophthalmology were established there, and in 1851, a maternity ward was inaugurated.
A major turning point came in 1867, when the Austro-Hungarian Compromise established the Dual Monarchy, with two capitals, Vienna and Budapest. In the western half of the monarchy there were already six universities, while in the Kingdom of Hungary- of which Transylvania became part in 1868 - there was only one university, in Pest. This imbalance raised the issue of founding a second university.
Cluj had a major advantage: its strong academic tradition. The city already hosted three important colleges - Reformed, Unitarian, and Catholic - as well as higher education institutions such as the Law Academy and the Medical-Surgical Institute, alongside a major scientific institution, the Transylvanian Museum Society.
Faculty of Medicine, Franz Joseph University of Cluj (1872-1919)
These academic and institutional foundations made Cluj the natural choice for the establishment of a second university within the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1872, the University of Cluj was officially founded (from 1881, "Franz Joseph" University of Cluj), comprising four faculties: Law, Medicine, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and History, Philosophy and Letters. The Faculty of Medicine inherited both the infrastructure and the teaching staff of the former Medical-Surgical Institute, ensuring continuity between the earlier professional training system and the new university framework. Hungarian became the language of instruction.
The first decades of the university's existence were marked not only by the consolidation of teaching and research, but also by an ambitious programme of infrastructural development. The construction of the University Clinics represented the largest architectural project undertaken by the institution. Conceived as a Pavilion-style complex built on a slope and arranged across three terraces, the clinics followed the most advanced hygienic principles of the period: the buildings were separated in order to minimize the risk of cross-contamination.
By the eve of the First World War, when the complex was fully completed, it covered more than 10,000 square meters and included over 800 rooms, approximately 600 beds, 28 laboratories, facilities for dissection, autopsy, and vivisection, 11 libraries, and several museums, of which the Institutes of Anatomy and Forensic Medicine was especially renowned. Built at a cost of four million crowns, the clinical complex met the highest European standards of its time. By 1918, eighteen clinics and institutes were already operating within this medical campus.
The University Clinics Complex (1909). General view.
A landmark in this development was the inauguration of the Anatomy Pavilion in 1888, one of the first dedicated buildings of the Faculty of Medicine in Cluj. Designed in the Neo-Renaissance style, it housed three major institutes: Anatomy, Pathological Anatomy, and Forensic Medicine. A central figure in the creation of this space was Professor Leó Davida, a distinguished anatomist trained in Budapest under József Lenhossék, one of the leading anatomists of the nineteenth century. Arriving in Cluj in 1882, Davida played a decisive role in transforming the faculty into a modern centre for education and research. In addition to designing the Institute of Anatomy, he also founded an anatomy museum.
The Didactic Collection of Human Anatomy remains one of the oldest and most valuable collections of the university. As the Anatomy building is currently undergoing extensive renovation, this collection has been temporarily relocated to the university museum. The more than 150 anatomical preparations now displayed there—preserved through dry techniques, injection methods, and corrosion casting - were created by Davida himself. Some of these specimens received awards at the "Exposition Universelle" in Paris. Alongside them, several anatomical models produced by the renowned Parisian Tramond workshop have also been preserved and are currently exhibited in the museum.
The prestige of this medical centre grew steadily through an exceptionally rich teaching and research activity, as well as through studies that achieved international recognition. Among the most distinguished professors were László Udránszky, internationally known for his work on the physiology of vision; Endre Hőgyes, associated with the discovery of the vestibulo-ocular reflex; and Károly Lechner, founder of the local school of psychiatry and author of seminal studies on the pathology of reflexes. In terms of mother tongue, the majority of students were Hungarian, followed by Romanian and German speakers.
The Faculty of Medicine was also responsible for the training of pharmacists. During the first year, students attended courses at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, while in the second year both theoretical and practical instruction took place within the Faculty of Medicine.
The end of 1918 brought the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a fundamental reconfiguration of higher education in Cluj. Following the principle of national self-determination, the union of Transylvania with Romania was proclaimed on 1 December 1918. The new Romanian authorities, represented by the Governing Council (Consiliul Dirigent) - the provisional government of Transylvania - requested that the teaching staff of the Hungarian university swear an oath of allegiance to King Ferdinand I of Romania. Upon their refusal, the Hungarian university withdrew first to Budapest and, from 1921 onward, to Szeged.
Faculty of Medicine, King Ferdinand University of Cluj (1919-1948)
During 1919 and 1920, the University of Cluj was reorganized under Romanian authority. The Governing Council established a University Commission composed of twelve professors from the Old Kingdom and twelve from Transylvania, chaired by Professor Sextil Pușcariu, the first rector of the newly established Romanian university. Its mission was to select the academic staff for what became in 1927 "King Ferdinand I" University of Cluj.
Professors of the Faculty of Medicine of the Romanian University in Cluj during the 1921-1922 academic year.
The first dean of the Faculty of Medicine was Professor Iuliu Hațieganu, himself a graduate of the former Hungarian University of Cluj and previously an assistant at the Medical Clinic. He later served twice as rector of the university. One of the most brilliant diagnosticians of his era, Hațieganu founded a distinguished school of internal medicine and left a lasting civic legacy through the sports park (known today as "Iuliu Haieganu" Sports Park) he built in memory of his son, today regarded as one of the most beautiful academic parks in Southeastern Europe.
Prof. Iuliu Hațieganu. Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (1919-1920). Rector (1933-1934; 1940-1944).
The University Commission actively invited renowned scholars and researchers to Cluj, many of whom came from Bucharest or from Romanian academic circles abroad. Their presence rapidly transformed the faculty into one of the most prestigious medical centres in the region. The Institute of Pathological Anatomy was founded under the guidance of Victor Babeș, co-author with André Cornil of the first treatise on bacteriology in the world and founder of the third bacteriology institute in Europe. The Institute of Experimental Pathology was established under Constantin Levaditi, whose name is associated with landmark discoveries related to poliomyelitis and syphilis.
Simultaneously, Ioan Minea laid the foundations of the Cluj school of neurology. Together with his mentor, Gheorghe Marinescu, he achieved international recognition through pioneering studies on the nervous system. In surgery, Iacob Iacobovici founded the local surgical school and made important contributions to war surgery, several procedures still bearing his name.
The Faculty of Medicine distinguished itself through several national firsts. It was the first faculty in Romania, and among the few in Europe, where dentistry became a compulsory subject. Semiology was taught here for the first time in Romania. Cluj also became home to the first department of balneology in Romania. The construction of the New Clinics Palace represented one of the academic community's major interwar achievements.
Display case with objects from the folk medicine collection. Museum of the Institute for the History of Medicine, interwar period.
In 1920, in the context of the campaign against venereal diseases, the first docu-fiction film in the history of cinema was produced in Cluj. A significant role in this initiative was played by Constantin Levaditi and Dr. Dominic Stanca, director of the Women's Hospital.
The faculty's academic prestige was further strengthened by visiting lecturers appointed through bilateral agreements signed between the Romanian state and the French government. Among them, Professor Jules Guiart of the University of Lyon inaugurated, for the first time in Romania, the Institute for the History of Medicine.
The Faculty of Medicine also included a pharmacy section, although pharmacy education was centralized in Bucharest in 1934.
The harmonious development of the university during the interwar period was abruptly interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Following the Second Vienna Award in 1940, Romania was forced to cede Northern Transylvania to Hungary. The Faculties of Medicine, Letters and Philosophy, and Law were transferred to Sibiu, while the Faculty of Sciences moved to Timișoara. In Sibiu, the Faculty of Medicine continued its activity in the public hospital, the military school, and repurposed barracks. Meanwhile, Franz Joseph University returned from Szeged to Cluj.
At the end of the Second World War, the Romanian university returned to Cluj, although this process unfolded with considerable difficulty due to the temporary Soviet military presence in Transylvania, the gradual consolidation of the communist regime in Romania, and the parallel existence of "Franz Joseph" University.
The universities were soon renamed in accordance with the new political context. King Ferdinand I University became "Victor Babeș" University, while the Hungarian institution received the name "Bolyai" University, in honor of the Transylvanian mathematicians Farkas and János Bolyai. Due to a lack of adequate facilities, the Faculty of Medicine of "Bolyai" University was relocated to Târgu Mureș.
The Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy of Cluj-Napoca (1948-1991)
The postwar years were marked by profound political intervention in academic life. At the request of the Ministry of Culture, purging commissions were established, and in January 1945, university autonomy was suspended. Between 1944 and 1947, the institution underwent successive waves of political purges, officially framed in the language of compression (reduction of staff) or rationalisation, but in reality driven by ideological criteria. This process continued in several stages even after 1948.
The communist regime sought to reshape Romanian society through radical political, economic, and cultural transformation, with education occupying a central place in this project. Universities were expected both to train a new socialist intellectual elite and to support the broader modernization drive associated with industrial expansion and the need for a robust healthcare system staffed by well-trained professionals.
A decisive turning point came in 1948, when the new Education Reform Law reorganized the entire system under exclusive state control. Medical faculties were separated from the universities and transformed into newly created Institutes of Medicine and Pharmacy. Five such institutes were established in Romania, and in Cluj the new institute initially included five faculties: Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Hygiene, and Pediatrics. By the late 1950s, the Faculty of Hygiene was dissolved, while Pediatrics became a department within the Faculty of Medicine.
Chemistry laboratory, the 1960s. The Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca.
One of the constructive outcomes of the 1948 reform was the diversification of medical specializations and the rapid expansion of departments. The Faculty of Medicine began its activity with 30 departments, most of them continuing the traditions established before the reform. By 1991, this number had doubled, with another 30 departments created in response to the growing complexity of medical education and research.
From the mid-twentieth century onward, the teaching and clinical infrastructure was further expanded through new hospital units, including the Hospital for Infectious Diseases, the Rehabilitation Hospital, and the Oncology Hospital.
The Infectious Diseases Hospital in Cluj.
A defining characteristic of higher education worldwide in the second half of the twentieth century was the steady growth in student numbers, and Cluj fully reflected this global trend. At the Faculty of Medicine, student enrolment increased from 734 in 1948 to 3,579 in 1978. Internationalization also accelerated: while in 1957 the faculty had only three foreign students, their number rose to 957 by 1978. Whereas in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries academic mobility had been shaped largely by geographical proximity and cultural affinity, by the mid-twentieth century communist states increasingly developed educational cooperation with countries from the Global South and the broader developing world, including Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Syria, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, Venezuela, and Nigeria.
Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Cluj-Napoca (1991-present)
In 1991, the institute gained university status and entered an extensive phase of modernization and international recognition. In 1994, it adopted the name "Iuliu Hațieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy. The English and French study lines were established in 1997 and 2000 respectively, followed by the launch of the first master's programmes in 2005. The university's academic prestige continued to rise: in 2011 it was classified as an institution of advanced research and education, and a decade later, it became the only medical university in Romania included in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (top 1,000). In 2023, it remained the country's sole medical university represented in the QS World University Rankings by Subject.
Headquarters of Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca.
Today, the university stands as a leading academic institution with a highly diverse international community. It comprises four faculties - Medicine, Dental Medicine, Pharmacy, and the recently established Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences - reflecting its strategic expansion in response to contemporary healthcare workforce needs. This development has been bolstered by its regional extension in Baia Mare and the launch of an international programme in Novara, Italy.
The university continues to host the largest number of international students among Romanian universities, with approximately 3,300 students from 64 countries. In addition, it trains around 3,600 medical residents annually, further reinforcing its pivotal role in shaping the future healthcare workforce.
Graduation ceremony of "Iuliu Hațieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca. Class of 2024.
Research remains a central pillar of the university's mission. Its major infrastructure include the MEDFUTURE Biomedical Research Institute, the Center for Practical Skills and Simulation in Medicine, and advanced research laboratories across all faculties. The large international student body and the steady expansion of foreign partnerships continue to reflect the university's enduring commitment to global medical education and cross-border scientific collaboration.
Selected Bibliography
Anca Dana Buzoianu, Cristian Bârsu, Oana Habor, Corina Ioana Bocșan, Petru Adrian Mircea, József Lukács (ed.), 100 de ani de învățământ medical românesc la Cluj. Tradiție și performanță, Cluj-Napoca, 2019.
Ana-Victoria Sima ed., A Concise History of Babeș-Bolyai University, Collection Universitas 5, Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2019
Gaal György - Robert Offner, A Kolozsvári főiskolai seborvosképzés első évszázada (1775-1872/5), Cluj-Napoca, 2025.