The medieval and pre-modern lapidarium constitutes one of the most valuable collections of this kind in the Transylvania, consisting of funerary, architectural and sculptural monuments from the 13th-19th centuries obtained through acquisitions, donations, demolitions and systematic or salvage archaeological excavations.
The lapidarium collection was founded by the Transylvanian Museum Association, which initiated, beginning with the second half of the 19th century, the collection of architectural and funerary elements from the demolition of historic Transylvanian buildings.
The present exhibition consists of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance architectural monuments, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical funerary monuments, Baroque sculptural monuments, as well as the collection of plaster copies.
The most significant part of the collection consists of the architectural monuments from the dwelling houses of Renaissance-era Cluj.
The medieval and pre-modern lapidarium was opened to the public for the first time in 1903 in the basement of the central building of the university from Cluj on the current Mihail Kogălniceanu Street, at the initiative of the director of the Numismatic and Antiquities Collection of the Transylvanian Museum Association, archaeologist Béla Pósta. The exhibition was moved to its current premises in 1913 by the same director, and the organization of the exhibits was coordinated by sculptor Ferenc Kolozsvári Szeszák, restorer and curator of the Numismatic and Antiquities Collection.
The current reorganisation is a partial rearrangement which involved restoring all the pieces and displaying them according to clear thematic and stylistic criteria. The new concept was based on the preservation of some elements of the old exhibition, such as all the frames exhibited by means of inlaid reconstruction, the series of portals exhibited in an enfilade, specific to the image of this lapidarium, and those groups of pieces that could be incorporated into the new thematic concept. The present reorganisation was aimed at creating a selection of exhibits in order to highlight the most significant pieces of the collection, with a particular emphasis on its variety and richness.
(Illustration) The Roman and medieval lapidarium in the basement of the university from Cluj in 1907
(Illustration) The medieval and pre-modern lapidarium in the 1940s (Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Budapest)
(Illustration) The medieval and pre-modern lapidarium in the 1970s (Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Budapest)