Walk in the „City of Schools”

1. Lutheran Upper School for Girls, Árpád tér 1. GPS: 47.392308 / 16.539842

The Lutheran Upper School for Girls was unveiled in 1899, according to Ludwig Schöne’s plans. It was maintained by the Transdanubian Diocese. Girls who finished elementary school attended this school, and they gained education similar to the lower grades of secondary school. They also learnt household management. In 1921 it became an 8-grade school. In 1927 it was converted into a lyceum and then into a secondary grammar school for girls in 1942. It was then named after the founder, Bishop Ferenc Gyurátz. Agricultural subjects were taught starting in 1945. After nationalization, agricultural technician training started, and then it was converted into a technical school. In the 1990s the school started to teach trades and information technology. Since 2001, the Lutheran Church has taken ownership once again.

2. Former secondary school, Jurisics M. tér GPS: 47.3898026307668 / 16.540716769744378

Operating since 1677, the secondary school was founded and built by Bishop György Széchényi. He also endowed a foundation of 60,000 forints to maintain the school. The building was designed by Pietro Orsolini, who supervised the construction until its completion in 1680. Students were taught by Jesuit priests until 1773, by Piarists from 1777 to 1815, and finally by the Benedictines from 1815 to 1948. In the second half of the 19th century it was converted into a four-grade secondary school and then in 1908 an eight-grade school. Then a new building was constructed. The old school building was demolished. Its former place can be seen in the inner town. On the walls of the quarter house are memorial plaques to commemorate the school’s renowned teachers and students, and Count Kristóf Niczky, who kept the school in Kőszeg under the rule of Jospeh II.

3. Kelcz-Adelffy Orphanage – Teachers’ Training College, Kelcz-Adelffy u. 3. GPS: 47.390233 / 16.541614

The first orphanage was established in 1741. In 1749, the Jesuits developed it as a huge institution. The present appearance of the building was gained after its restoration and completion by Menyhért Hefele in 1781. For the first few years, the residents of the orphanage were taught in the building. Later, they went to school with the children from the town. In 1930 the building began to house the boarding school of the Hungarian Royal State Teachers’ Training Institute founded in 1926, the legal successor of which is the Teachers’ Training College in Szombathely. In 1958, a co-educational state school started to operate in the building, which in 1961 was named after one of the most famous kuruc colonels, Ádám Balogh de Bér. It has been standing empty since the school moved away in 1989.

4. Brenner House, former National School, Kelcz-Adelffy u. 4. GPS: 47.390013 / 16.541598

The former school, built in 1842, serves as the Brenner János Community House. The town outgrew its former Catholic primary school, so a bigger plot of land was purchased for 4,000 forints in 1837. The construction started in 1841 and the new school building was completed in the following year. On the façade, “National Oskolák” was painted. In the building were only boys’ classes. The girls were placed in another building. In the building there was a Sunday school, an art school, and a music school. Starting in the second half of the 19th century, students were able to study a trade, and from 1967 to 1979 a vocational school operated in the building.

5. Former National or Trivial School, Kelcz-Adelffy u. 13. GPS: 47.389064 / 16.542105

The year of the foundation of the first school in Kőszeg in unknown, but it must have operated in the 17th century. Its building was completed in 1653. The school employed two magistrates. One of them taught in Hungarian, the other one in German. The school was used by the Lutherans, who founded a secondary school as well. Following Maria Theresa’s educational reforms, school became compulsory for all children between 6 and 12. From that time education continued not in Latin, but in the national language. According to the new regulations, there were 3 classes for boys, while one teacher dealt with the girls. As residents of Kelcz-Adelffy Orphanage were taught in the institution, one teacher’s salary was provided by the foundation. The school outgrew the building as the teachers lived there as well so a new and bigger one was built. The building was sold in 1842 and it has been an apartment house since then.

6. State Civil School, Várkör 35-37. GPS: 47.389681 / 16.542596

Founded in 1876, the State-Supported Hungarian Civil Boys and Girls School started its operation in the building purchased by the town. This old school type was between 4-year elementary schools and secondary schools. Its 4-year curriculum roughly corresponded to the upper grades of modern elementary schools. It was different from the lower grades of secondary schools, as Latin was not taught. Girls’ classes ceased in 1901. It was nationalized by the state in 1922, and was renamed István Széchenyi Hungarian Royal State Civil Boys’ School. In the 1940s, civil schools ceased operation and were converted into 8-grade primary schools. A state boy’s school started to operate in the building. Its former rooms at present are used by the local public library.

További információk

The former Musser House, which was built in Classicist style, in the first half of the 1800s has housed the city library since 1984. Founded in 1876, the State-Supported Hungarian Civil Boys and Girls School started its operation in the building purchased by the town. This old school type was between 4-year elementary schools and secondary schools. Its 4-year curriculum roughly corresponded to the upper grades of modern elementary schools. It was different from the lower grades of secondary schools, as Latin was not taught. Girls’ classes ceased in 1901. It was nationalized by the state in 1922, and was renamed István Széchenyi Hungarian Royal State Civil Boys’ School. In the 1940s, civil schools ceased operation and were converted into 8-grade primary schools. A state boy’s school started to operate in the building. Its former rooms at present are used by the local public library.

7. Nursery school, Várkör 20-22. GPS: 47.38961 / 16.54299

Nursery schools, or kindergartens, spread all over Hungary in the first part of the 19th century. The town’s first kindergarten was established in 1869 and funded by Kőszeg Nursery Association, which primarily gained its funds from donations. A new building was erected in 1871 from more than 20,000 forints donated by Kőszeg-born Fülöp Schey living in Vienna. The founder required that the school accept children without religious discrimination, and that it be named after Queen Elizabeth.

8. Katonai iskola, Kiss J. u. 31. (Dr. Nagy László EGYMI (former Military School)) GPS: 47.392739 / 16.549048

In 1853, construction began on a building modeled on the cavalry barracks, in which the military higher education institution began operations in 1856. From the 19th century onwards, the institution played an important role on a permanent basis to this day. If you leave Sacred Heart Church and have a look at the Golden Ostrich Hotel on the right, you can enter the scene of the novel School at the Frontier. In the novel, one of the main characters, Gábor Medve’s mother, spends a few nights in the hotel. If we start to walk towards Dr. Nagy László EGYMI, the former Matthias Hunyadi Military School, we walk on the same way as Medve did in his mind in his diary. Géza Ottlik was a student of the school from 1923 to 1926 and his novel School at the Frontier was inspired by the years he spent there. In the building complex we can find the scenes of the novel, including among others the canteen, the former chapel, and the hospital. Walking in the surrounding park, we can feel the atmosphere by which the novel was inspired.

The construction of this building started in 1853, and in 1856 a military boarding school started to operate. In 1875 it was reorganised as a military school, providing officers for the Imperial Army. The institution was overtaken by the Hungarian Army in 1918. After the Treaty of Trianon, military education continued in the building, which then was named after Matthias Hunyadi. In 1945, the school was relocated to Germany, and the buildings were occupied by the Hungarian Army. Until 1956 a Soviet military hospital operated on the premises. The National School for Children with Special Needs was established in 1958. The present name of the school is Dr. Nagy László EGYMI.

9. Education Centre of the Dominican Sisters, Várkör 34. GPS: 47.390749 / 16.542610

In 1868, four Dominican nuns arrived in Kőszeg from Graz to establish a monastery and a boarding school for girls. As there was only one applicant for the school, the sisters remained without income. Then they started to teach local Catholic girls in elementary school. They opened their Teachers’ Training School in 1874 and then girls’ classes were launched in 1895. The building gained its present form in 1929. After nationalization it was divided into a State Teachers’ Training College and a State Elementary School for Girls. The former was placed to Szombathely; the latter was named after Zsuzsanna Kossuth. It has been operating as a religious primary school since 1995.

10. Lutheran Elementary School, Várkör 44. GPS: 47.391103 / 16.540755

In accordance with the Patent of Tolerance issued by Joseph II in 1785, Lutheran schools could return from Nemescsó. One teacher taught the girls and two teachers taught the boys. The latter were able to continue their education at a lower secondary school until 1876. The renowned institution welcomed students from several counties. Although the school gained an independent building on Gyöngyös Street in 1843, the congregation built a new building as well. After nationalization, the town’s kindergarten was placed in the building, which operates today as Central Artistic Kindergarten.

11. Jurisich Miklós Gimnázium GPS: 47.387521 / 16.536203

1883-ban Trefort Ágoston megteremtette az első középiskolai törvényt, amelyben meghatározták a tanítás anyagát, bevezették a tanmenetkészítés gyakorlatát. A törvény hatására teljessé vált Kőszegen a szakrendszerű oktatás. A kőszegi képviselőtestület alapítványt hozott létre a főgimnáziumi épület létesítésére, szerződést kötöttek tanítás céljára a bencés renddel, megszerezték a telket az Eszterházy-családtól, az engedélyt az uralkodótól és 1908-ban elkészült a Hunyadi úti épület. (Az építési tervet készítő csoportban ott találjuk Hajós Alfréd nevét.) Az 1909/10. tanévre épült ki a teljes nyolc osztályos szerkezet.

A II. világháború hadieseményei csak az 1944/45. tanévet zavarták meg, amikor a gimnázium épülete először német főparancsnoksági székhely, majd hadikórház lett.

1948. augusztus 13-án az 1948. évi XXXIII. törvény alapján az intézmény állami kezelésbe került a felszereléssel, a hozzá tartozó földterülettel és a fiúnevelővel együtt. Ekkor kapta a Jurisich Miklós Állami Gimnázium nevet. A még nyolc osztályos gimnáziumba beiratkozott utolsó osztály az 1951/52. tanévben érettségizett. Az államosítást követően a rendi tanárok távoztak, a helyi tanítóképzők, az evangélikus leánygimnázium, a katonai reáliskola egykori tanárai és a Szombathelyről ide helyezett tanárok alkották az új iskola tantestületét.