Prof. PhD Iuliu Hatieganu University Sports Park

No 7 Pandurilor Street
telephone:0264-429788, 429787, 584315,
fax.: 0264-429798, 428010;

It was set up between 1930-1932 by the eminent scientist, pedagogue and great sports enthusiastic, professor PhD Iuliu Hatieganu, rector of the University from Cluj. In the memory of his only son who had died at the age of eight and out of commitment for health, he financed both from personal funds and public subscription the entire project.

Built under the close supervision and guidance of the rector prof. PhD Iuliu Hatieganu, the Sports Park, which is located on the left side of the Somes River, in the west side of Cluj-Napoca City, covers a surface of 25 hectares, offering both the young (especially the students) and other persons regardless of their age the chance to come here for sport, outdoor activities or even just for a stroll in the nature.

In his visionary discourse of October 21st 1931 Iuliu Hatieganu elaborated generous ideas concerning the importance of the physical education. "Physical education is the most important branch of positive hygiene, a constitutive and indispensable part of general knowledge… Physical Education… represents the cultural man’s endeavour for health, the sole guarantee for a happy life.”

The initial project of the Park was awarded the bronze medal in the Sports Architecture Exhibition from the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936.

The projects for building and developing the park were modern and generous. One can say they haven’t come to an end yet and the endeavours of the Babes-Bolyai University Management in this matter are undeniable.

The entrance wood gate was crafted by the craftsman Petru Neagra a Ciutului from Albac. The wooden church, built in the style of the Maramures Country (which burnt down in 1990) gathered many generations of students in the interwar period to the masses during the traditional holiday periods.

The building of an athletics facility having a 60 m track with 8 lanes was initiated. The number of the sports fields is constantly growing, besides the construction of a sports games hall (the Vasile Geleriu Hall).

The modernizing tendencies had become stronger in the past years and thus the new and modern building of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport was inaugurated in 1996, and in 1997 the park was provided with a modern synthetic athletics track.

Football lovers can enjoy a mini-football field with synthetic surface and floodlights, also equipped with locker room and showers, which was achieved in 2005.

Besides the existing sports bases, in the the 80’s a Juventus block of studio flats was built within the precincts of the park, destined for the accomodation of sportsmen or for other accomodation purposes of the University. Around the old wooden caban that used to accomodate the athlets, modern accomodation spaces were built, the “Guest House” (in the 90’s) and a student restaurant in the precincts, where University guests, sportsmen, students and academics in the FPES can eat.

In October 2003, took place the inauguration of an imposing and modern nine-storey student home, "Universitas Student House, accommodation destined for the foreign students coming to study in the "Socrates” and “Ceepus” university programmes, foreign lecturers who come through bilateral agreements, and other guests of the University. The building also houses the Centre for International Cooperation that ensures all the international exchanges and bilateral agreements between the Babes-Bolyai University and other universities.

Of its 25 hectares surface, about 2/3 consist of green spaces with alleys, grass, flower beds, trees and shrubs areas.
Currently all the FPES students carry on their didactic activities in the park; it also activates the departments of Physical Education from other faculties of BBU; sportsmen from all the sections in the "University" Club can exercise here; former university sportsmen and sports performers, and numerous people who enjoy physical activities.

By Decision nr.3659 adopted in the Babes-Bolyai University Senate Sitting of March 29th 2004, all University students may benefit from a free of charge programme for all the sports bases throughout the academic year (except for the holidays period), Monday-Friday: between 10:00-12:00 and Saturday between 18:00-20:00, and 50% off the renting fees, outside this programme.

A brief presentation of the sports bases follows as such:

1. V. Geleriu sports games hall
2. aerobics room
3. athletics hall
4. workout room
5. massage room
6. running track covered in synthetic material
7. 2 soccer grass fields and 1 clay field
8. 1 rugby field
9. 1 synthetic minifootball field with floodlights
10. 11 clay tennis courts
11. 2 bitumen tennis courts
12. 1 bitumen platform (with handball, basketball, minifootball courts)
13. locker rooms

Prof. PhD. I. Haţieganu University Sports Park or the so-called "Babeş" is an oasis of vegetation providing a guarantee for health through sports and physical activity, being kept forever young by the young generations that come here for sport purposes and thus continuing the ideals of the illustrious physician and professor Iuliu Hatieganu.