The Gheorghe Munteanu Murgoci National College (Colegiul Național „Gheorghe Munteanu Murgoci”) is a public secondary school in central Brăila, housed in a historic Neoclassical building beside Independence Square. Founded in 1919 as the city’s first secondary school for girls, it moved into the former municipal guards’ barracks in 1922 and later developed into a coeducational national college.
The building was constructed in the late nineteenth century for Brăila’s municipal guards, with barracks and stables arranged around a courtyard. It subsequently accommodated other military units, including an engineering battalion specializing in pontoon bridges, as well as a secondary school for a short period. Its conversion into a permanent educational institution began after the newly founded girls’ school purchased the property from the municipality. Having initially operated from rented premises with just three classes and 133 pupils, the school moved into the former barracks in October 1922.
As enrollment increased, the school expanded with additional classrooms, a library, laboratories, and boarding facilities. It became a girls’ high school in 1929, while further construction during the late 1920s and early 1930s enlarged the original complex. The historic building retained its Neoclassical character, with a long, symmetrical facade, regularly spaced windows, and restrained classical decoration. Subsequent alterations and extensions adapted the premises to changing educational needs, while the original building retained elements of its historic interior.
In 1956, the school began admitting both boys and girls, ending its exclusive role in female secondary education. It received the name of Gheorghe Munteanu Murgoci in 1971, honoring the Romanian geologist and educator (1872-1925) who spent part of his early life in Brăila. After further changes to its educational profile during the communist period, the institution returned to general secondary education in 1991 and received national college status in 2000. It now provides lower and upper secondary education in a complex that combines the original nineteenth-century building with later teaching facilities.
