Scheii Brasovului was the burgh
\nthat was fated to host the first education institution in the Romanian space,
\nback in 1495. The building was restored in the 18th century, and
\ntoday is home to the ‘First Romanian School’ museum. Father Vasile Oltean
\ntalked to us about the history of this monument:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Across history, we can see
\nthat the church sheltering this area had as patrons 32 rulers and noblemen of
\nWallachia and Moldavia. Thanks to this fact, confirmed by 80 royal edicts,
\ntoday hosted by this museum, a Romanian cultural and spiritual center was
\ncreated here, materialized in the first Romanian school. History tells us that
\nRomanian education dates back to the 16th century, but his is
\ncontradicted by the chronicle of the church, which says clearly that, the holy
\nchurch and school were erected in 1495. How can we not believe what the
\nchronicle says, considering that in 1932, Aurelia Muresan published the
\ndocuments of the construction in 1495. This is documentation capable of proving
\nthe truth. In the meantime, we find this in the text of the papal bull issued
\nby Boniface the 9th, of December 13, 1392, in which the pope in Rome
\nspoke of the schismatic church in Schei, where pseudo-teachers taught.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Genuine cultural centers
\nflourished around the School of Schei, being representative not only for the
\nBarsa Land but for the entire Romanian region. The books by deacon Coresi were
\nprinted here in Romanian for the first time. Dimitrie Eustatievici, a local
\nfrom Brasov, wrote here the first Romanian grammar back in 1757. Father Vasile
\nOltean, who is also a teacher, told us more about the tumultuous history of the
\nfirst Romanian school in Scheii Brasovului.
\n<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I am thinking of the year 1981,
\nwhen we first discovered the 700 pages school manuscript from the 11th
\n– 12th centuries. The lesson on virtue alone has 250 pages. Such a big volume of major importance and
\nwith such a rich content is evidence that there was a high-level education system
\nback then. I was trying to imagine the profile of the student who was supposed
\nto study that manual. We have 15 storerooms and another three rooms that are
\nstill unexplored. We have 6,000 old books and 30 thousand documents. Until 1962
\nall these had been hidden in the steeple. Nobody knew about that, but in 1962,
\nan old man, professor Ioan Colan, went to the tower to take a board. He pulled
\nthe board out of the wall and made such a break into it that he was able to see
\nthe room where these documents were hidden. Ioan Colan served an 8-year prison
\nsentence for keeping Saguna’s bible in his private book collection; he didn’t
\naccept to burn it so he was declared a thief and enemy of the people. After his
\njail years he got a job here at the church as unskilled carpenter, in spite of
\nhaving three bachelor degrees and three PhDs. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In 1949, along with Ana Pauker’s
\ndecree, under which all assets in the church patrimony were to be burnt out,
\nthe documents belonging to the School in Schei were also to be destroyed. A priest
\nhad hidden them in the walls of the church tower, to protect them from the
\nimminent destruction ordered by the communist authorities. They stayed there
\nuntil 1962, when somebody found them. Dean Vasile Cuman started right away the
\norganization of the Schei museum. Here is with details father Vasile Oltean
\nonce more .<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If we
\nhave a 16th century school-book, it means that there was definitely a school
\nback then. We also found a class book, probably the oldest in the country,
\ndating back to 1683. The school had just one teacher, Ioan Duma, who had 110
\npupils. The oldest of them was 20 years old. He would come to school for 3
\nmonths, then he would become a ‘gociman’. The word comes from the German
\nGottsmann, meaning ‘God’s man’. It was in fact the administrator of the
\nsettlement and of the church. Administrators back then had a big power, they
\ncould even sack the priest, if he wasn’t fit for the job. If he stayed 6 months
\nin school, he would become a teacher and a deacon. He would sing in church and
\ntake care of the school. If he stayed 9 months, he would become a priest. In
\norder to be allowed in school, a pupil was supposed to bring a bucket of wheat,
\na cart full of wood and money, four Florins, as the class book shows. But it
\nwas not the pupil or the father who would pay, it was the responsibility of the
\nentire village. The fact that there were 110 pupils shows that children came
\nfrom the entire Barsa Land, not just locals. The first girl was only registered
\nin 1846.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the Schei School’s
\ncollection there is also the first book in Slavic, written in 1491, printed
\nunder order by the ruler of Moldavia, Stephen the Great. Sweipold Fiol was the
\none who, without knowing it, printed the first orthodox book, although he was
\nin the center of the Catholic world, in Krakow. The 6 thousand old books and
\nthe 30 thousand documents in Brasov include genuine treasures of universal
\nculture.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Scheii Brasovului in central Romania hosted the first education institution in the Romanian space, back in 1495.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":129162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[35175,42586,42587],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-129161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-brasov","tag-romanian-school","tag-scheii-brasovului"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n