Romfilatelia meets the desires of science enthusiasts by introducing into circulation on Tuesday, June 18th, the postage stamps issue University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, two centuries of education and innovation.
The issue contents a perforated souvenir sheet with a stamp that has a face value of Lei 28.50, illustrating the bust of the statue of Gheorghe Lazar, the founder of the first Romanian technical school. The statue of the great scholar is the work of Ion Georgescu, made in 1886. The graphic elements that complete the composition of the souvenir sheet have as their subject the facsimiles of some documents attesting the establishment and evolution of the school, which today became University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, the architectural project of the first headquarters (architects André Lecomte du Noüy and Cassien Bernard), the modern central edifice of the current student centre complex (architect Octav Doicescu) and the institution’s logo.
University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest is the most prestigious Romanian engineering school, with a recognized tradition in the formation of elites in the Romanian technical field. Through the dedication and sustained efforts of professors and students, it has been written the history of a school that has evolved over the past two centuries at the same time with the modernization of Romania, a history found in the construction of roads, bridges, railways, high-performance industrial objectives, result of further training of engineers specialized in different industrial fields, who have pushed the autochthonous technical culture among the top exceptional achievements.
In 1818, Gheorghe Lazar introduced the first Romanian language courses for the training of land surveyors at the “Academic School for Philosophical and Mathematical Sciences at Saint Sava Monastery in Bucharest”, and urged the young people to study, saying: “Come on all, from all corners and of any social condition, come to the spring of healing! At the museum of blooming!”
Constantin Balaceanu was one of the school’s supervisorboyars who encouraged Gheorghe Lazar’s efforts to establish a technical education forum in Romania, claiming “we want engineering, teacher, so the youngsters measure our estates, so you begin teaching them engineering, as they can learn computation in any grocery stores!”
On February 1st, 1832, Petrache Poenaru was appointed Manager of Public Schools, and on May 5th, 1832 he was appointed professor of Geometry and Algebra at the College of St. Sava, and from September 1832 he became a member of the Supervisory Committee of National Schools. As professor and manager, Petrache Poenaru involved in the plan of organization and orientation of the didactic process, in order to line up to the advanced models of Western Europe.
On October 1st, 1864, by the Decree of Ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the “School of Bridges and Highways, Mines and Architecture” was established, then becoming the “School of Bridges, Roads and Mines” on October 30th, 1867, by the Decree of King Carol I.
June 10th, 1920 was the day when the “Polytechnic School of Bucharest” was founded by the Decree of King Ferdinand I, by transformation of the National School of Bridges and Roads. The Polytechnic School of Bucharest had four departments: the Mechanics and Electricity Department, the Civil Engineering Department, the Mining Department and the Industrial Department. In November of the same year, its title was changed again to the “Polytechnics of Bucharest”.
In 1948, through a series of normative acts (decrees, ministerial decisions), measures were taken regarding the organization of education of all levels. The Polytechnics of Bucharest turned into the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest. Starting with November 1992, the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest became the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, a name it currently carries, and which now has 15 faculties and over 30,000 students, being the largest and most prestigious technical higher education university in Romania.
As recognition of preserving the values of the academic community for more than two centuries, continuing the mission of bringing together education, training and research under one roof, the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest was rewarded for its efforts with the “Nihil Sine Deo” Order by the Royal House of Romania in 2013 and by the President of Romania with the National Order of Merit in the Knight rank, in 2018.
At two centuries since its establishment, the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest continues to be ranked in the top elite of the Romanian education, continuing the tradition of the formation, development and improvement of the generations that have built Romania, in line with the requirements and standards of modern society, both at European and international level, proof of this being the fact that the University has partners in more than 100 countries all over the world.
Romfilatelia the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest for the documentary and photographic support granted in the achievement of this postage stamps issue.
