School · 1443
Casa Matia
The oldest Cluj palace from the passage between Gothic and Renaissance, the house where Matthias Corvinus was born — and, since the second half of the twentieth century, a building of the University of Art and Design.
Originally the “Ștefan Kolb House”, built in the fifteenth century inside the first defensive enclosure of the old citadel, on land belonging to a Saxon patrician. It is the only Cluj palace from the transition between Gothic and Renaissance, a listed monument under code CJ-II-m-A-07393.
Matthias Corvinus was born here. The older plaque on the facade, designed by Lajos Pakey and made by the sculptor György Zala for Emperor Franz Joseph's visit, gives the date 27 March 1443 and names him the son of John Hunyadi and Elizabeth Szilágyi. A second plaque, in Romanian and English, was added in 1996.
The building held a museum until 1935 — part of the collection had been donated by professor Otto Hermann. After the Second World War it housed a college, then the University of Art and Design, which uses it to this day.
We record it here to settle a confusion that comes up often: Casa Matia is at number 6 on Strada Matei Corvin. Galeria Casa Matei, also in this guide, is at number 4, in the Sapientia University building. Two neighbouring buildings, two different things.
Connections
A building in use by the University of Art and Design
source · 2026-09-11
Sources (2)
- ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Matia_din_Cluj-Napoca · 2026-09-11 Denumirea inițială, datarea, codul de monument, plăcile comemorative, muzeul până în 1935 și utilizarea de către UAD
- www.google.com/maps · 2026-09-11 Adresa
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