„Bolyai” building - Târgu Mureș
The cradle of the Reformed College was the former Franciscan monastery building, located near today’s Fortress Church, which had already been abandoned by 1556. The Transylvanian Diet donated the building to serve as a school (Schola Particula). From 1557 onwards, Reformed children were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic here.
The origins of this educational institution are closely linked to the Reformation and to European humanism, coinciding roughly with the beginnings of the Principality of Transylvania — a time when new intellectual movements were spreading across Central and Western Europe.
The origins of this educational institution are closely linked to the Reformation and to European humanism, coinciding roughly with the beginnings of the Principality of Transylvania — a time when new intellectual movements were spreading across Central and Western Europe.
In 1602, the school was relocated to St. Nicholas Street, into the buildings belonging to the then St. Nicholas Parish Church. However, these premises soon became too small and had to be expanded several times up to the early 19th century.
Between 1716 and 1718, the renowned school offered shelter to 50 students and 2 professors who had fled from the Reformed colleges of Sárospatak and Alba Iulia. On April 30, 1718, the three institutions merged, and the school was elevated to the rank of college, gaining the status of a higher educational institution. It continued to operate as the Reformed College uninterruptedly until 1948.
In the spring of 1829, a printing press was established on the premises of the college, where Bolyai Farkas and Bolyai János published their famous works, Tentamen and Appendix, along with many valuable textbooks and literary or scientific publications. In recent years, the School Museum was set up in the rooms of the former printing press, exhibiting among other items the original letterpress set of the Reformed College. The museum is currently closed temporarily due to restoration works.
The oldest surviving building of the college is the two-story dormitory built in 1802–1803. During the 19th century, another two-story building was erected between today’s Bolyai Street (formerly Nagyköz) and St. Nicholas Street, with shops on the ground floor and classrooms upstairs. This building was demolished in 1907 as outdated.
Between 1907 and 1909, according to the plans of architect Baumgarten Sándor, the new two-story Art Nouveau main building of the school was constructed. Today, the complex houses two Hungarian-language educational institutions: the Bolyai Farkas Theoretical High School and the Reformed College.
