This study presents the development of the library building from the moment the idea of establishing this institution occurred through the different stages of its completion and the execution to its inauguration.
When the Ferenc Jozsef University was founded in 1872 in Cluj, it was decided that a University Library was required. The Transylvanian Museum donated its rich collections to the new institution. The new library functioned in several rather unsuitable buildings during the following years. Finally the Museum Society, the University Council and the library management asked for a new library building to be raised. The field where the building was to be erected was bought by the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Religion; it was situated at the corner of Miko Street and Arany Janos Street, an important location from the point of view of urban planning.
In the project competition organized for the construction of the building famous architects of the age participated. The winners, Floris Nandor Korb and Kalman Giergl were familiar with the location having already built the University Clinical Complex in the vicinity of the future University Library. Therefore they managed to integrate the library into the new urban area developed west of the city centre; they turned the building towards Arany Janos Square. Though at the competition the two architects presented a plan characterised by the dominance of Neo-Baroque elements, in the course of its execution the building gained a Secessionist character. The building, whose foundations were laid in the summer of 1906 and which was officially inaugurated on 18 May 1909, represented an economic variant of the architectural program due to financial difficulties. Consequently, some important aspects of the execution project were abandoned and others were realized only in 1931-34.
