COD LMI: AB-II-m-A-00127

Date of construction: 1898 - 1900

The monument was built between 1898 and 1900. Its initial destination was that of military club (the club – the officers’ casino). The meeting of the Great National Assembly held on December 1, 1918 took place here, the Assembly deciding the Unification of Transylvania with Romania, thus concluding the unitary Romanian state. The overwhelming historical importance of the edifice generated modifications in accordance with the spirit of the interpretations given to the value of the Romanian medieval architecture by the school of I. Micu. In 1921-1922, the spaces inside were extended by building a vestibule and a series of niches at the Southern and Northern extremities. The hall had a semi-circular arch, sustained by pilasters and adorned with columns and decorative belts of vegetal inspiration. The two archways and the niche windows were decorated with canvas paintings created by Pierre Bellet and representing voivodes and personalities of the Romanian cultural life. Marble tiles were placed on the hall’s Western wall, displaying the carved inscription of the text of the King Ferdinand’s Proclamation to the country on the occasion of Romania’s entering war, the text of the Unification Motion and the text of the Law regarding the unification of Transylvania with Romania. The triumphal arch-shaped gateway was also added at this time, bearing an inscription meant to recall the Act of Unification concluded on December 1, 1918.

A general rehabilitation of the building was performed in 1968, on the occasion of the half-century anniversary of the Great Unification. In 1993-1994 the previous painting was replaced and the busts of King Ferdinand and Queen Mary were brought here. They also rehabilitated the marble plates displaying the texts of the Unification Resolution and the Law regarding the Unification of Transylvania, Banat, Crișana, Sătmar and Maramureș with Romania which was voted by the State Parliament on December 29, 1919, placing these plates on the Western wall of the hall. The objective was included in the tour of the National Museum of the Unification and it was here where the ethnographic exhibition was inaugurated in 1999. All the kings of the Greater Romania and all the Romanian presidents stepped into this building, which is a national symbol.