Iuliu Hațieganu

Iuliu Hațieganu studied medicine in Blaj and Cluj, and later became a professor at Cluj University. He was one of the pioneers in tuberculosis research. His brother Emil was a politician with high influences in Romania. Later the Cluj University of Medicine and Pharmacy was named after Iuliu, who was also one of the founders. For a brief time he was appointed Minister of Health in 1931 in the Romanian Government.

Hațieganu knew about the importance of physical education in institutions of higher education. Therefore, he organized thematic conferences and published a journal of education. To commemorate his son Iuliu Marius, who died at the age of just eight, he also built the Sports Park King Carol II in Cluj, whose plans were submitted to the 1936 Berlin Olympics Exhibition of Arts. He financed the construction of the sports field from its own resources. He managed to engage qualified and exceptional teachers for the education of his students.

The “Sports Ground King Carol II in Cluj”, actually “Sports Park King Carol II”, became part of the campus of the Faculty of Sports of the University of Cluj and is now named after its founder “Prof. PhD Iuliu Hațieganu University Sports Park”. The park’s original project, which combines authentic natural areas for the local population and terrain for sporting activities, was designed by architect Elemér Moll (1886-1955) and engineer Gyula Kovács (1881-1963). The park also included a Maramureş-style wooden church, which burned down in the late 1980s. In the meantime, the area has been modernized and expanded.