page_title: Cluj-Napoca Piarists' Church
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cluj-Napoca Piarists' Church / History
caption_attribution_description: Biserica Piarista din Cluj-Napoca - Piarista templom Kolozsvárott This is a photo of a historic monument in județul Cluj, classified with number CJ-II-m-A-07499
context_page_description: The Piarist Church, located at 5 Str. Universității, 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.
context_section_description: 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.
  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 Chindriș 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 Fărcaș, president of the Cluj Tribunal in the interwar period, who served nearly 8 years of a ten-year sentence, and his wife Eugenia.
caption: Main façade, frontal view.
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