THE JESUITE MONASTERY

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The local administration tried to make the Catholic actions difficult but the energy shown by Joseph Berdia, the first superior of the Jesuits in Sibiu, had as a result that the Jesuit monks had finally an office as their role and position inside the empire required.

The purchase of the House of Tailors for the construction of a convent was a success of the Austrians considering it was erected on one of the sides of the Main Square. The archeologists discovered here the fortification wall of the second circle in the 14th century as well as the ditches of the previous fortifications in the 12th and 13th centuries).

In 1703 Berdia bought two more houses beside the one of the tailors, and in 1724 The general Virmond consecrates the purchases. The works began in 1726 integrating themselves in the construction site of the Roman Catholic complex which transformed the North-Western alignment of the Main Square. On this construction site military guards were necessary so that the works be completed because the opposition of the reformed Christians. The building was extended by the purchase of the hous of Abraham von Ehrenburg in 1735.

In this building there was the first location of the Catholic Grammar School which became one of the most important educational institutions in Sibiu, it still exists today when it is named Gheorghe Lazăr High-School. When the rite was abolished the office of the Jesuits became the office of the Roman Catholic parish.

The architecture style is part of the Jesuit Baroque which prevailed at the beginning of the 18th century. The building respected the norm imposed by the local Magistrate to arrange the circulation passage which was in the entire Small Square. The building is made of four unequal wings which create a rectangular inner courtyard. Two of the wings have access in the Small Square whereas the other two wings have acces to the Main Square.