Establishment of the gymnasium (1859 - 1860) Following the
unification of the Romanian Principalities Wallachia and Moldavia of 1859, the newly elected prince
Alexandru Ioan Cuza enacted an educational reform aimed at the restructuring of the institutional framework of the education system of the new country. As such, on 25 November 1859,
decretul domnesc numărul 158 (the 158th princely decree) established a new gymnasium that had its original location on Calea Craiovei (currently Calea Rahovei), an important avenue in present-day Bucharest. The first lectures officially took place nearly a year later, on 3 November 1860. The original location of the school was varied, lessons and courses taking place on the premises of the various properties of Ioan Urlăţeanu and Tomiţă Atanasovici, rich landowners of the era. Students of the school would also participate at lessons held inside the chambers of the church Sf. Apostoli.
First split In 1878, due to overcrowding and an expanding demand for secondary education, a new school split from Matei Basarab and took on the name of Cantemir-Vodă, which will go on to become the
Cantemir-Vodă National College.
Move to the current building In 1885, at the incentive of the education minister of the time,
Spiru Haret, the school is moved to the actual building it still resides in to this day, on Matei Basarab Street in the Jewish Quarter of Bucharest. The original proprietors of the land to which it was moved were the descendants of
August Treboniu Laurian, a founding member of the
Romanian Academy and participant in the
Romanian revolution of 1848. The initial building featured the current central structure and its two floors with 4 rooms each, with the two current wings and an additional floor added later to also host additional classrooms, secretary and principal offices. Three years later, the bust of prince Matei Basarab was unveiled, which still sits in the central courtyard of the high school to this day. A third and final split happened in 1913, the resulting institution eventually becoming the
Spiru Haret National College.
Interwar period and Second World War (1918 - 1945) In the
interwar period, a gym meant for sports classes and a festivities hall were also built. The festivities hall, built between 1923 and 1928, would become a major addition to the school due to both its architectural design and its importance of the subsequent years. During the early 1940s, as Romania fell increasingly under the influence of Ion Antonescu’s fascist and antisemitic regime, the high school - like many educational institutions in Bucharest - was compelled to align itself with the new ideological and political directives of the state. In doing so, the school implemented exclusionary policies that resulted in the expulsion of a substantial number of Jewish students. This action not only mirrored the broader pattern of systemic discrimination imposed across the country’s educational system but also carried particular weight given the school’s location within a district historically known for its vibrant Jewish community. A notable student of the school,
Justin Georgescu, became a top alumni, eventually becoming a
communist and
anti-fascist activist until he was assassinated by authorities of the
Antonescu regime while going to a clandestine
UTC cell meeting, in 1942.
Post-war and during the communist regime (1945 - 1989) During the first
post-war years, it hosted plays of the
National Theatre of Bucharest, between 1945 and 1947, During those years, the institution went through numerous incarnations, either becoming an industrial (lower tier) or theoretical (higher tier) high school.
Post communism After
the fall of the Ceașusescu regime in 1989, the high school was once again subject to post-communist education reform, having its curricula structured along two main branches:
humanities and
exact sciences, with two sub-branches:
social sciences and
philology, and mathematics-informatics and
natural sciences respectively. In 1998 it attained the highest tier in the Romanian education system, earning the designation of a National College, owing to its age and educational prestige in both local and national education. In 1999 it earned the title of "pilot school" for the Municipality of Bucharest for the respective year. == Present day ==