On 23 October 1918, during his day-long visit to Debrecen, the Emperor Charles IV and his wife Queen Zita inaugurated the Royal Hungarian University of Debrecen in the emblematic building, which is now the Presidential Office of the Clinical Centre, in the presence of the city and university dignitaries. The inauguration was the last public appearance of the King in Hungary.
"The expansion of the famous Debrecen College into a university of science will provide the ancient Hungarian city with an excellent place for the cultivation and dissemination of the various branches of science, as it has been up to now, and beyond", said Charles IV on 23 October 1918 at a ceremony in the banqueting hall of the building.
The historic building, currently used as a council chamber in the President's Office, has recently been upgraded to accommodate the ceremony. The original parquet flooring, which was over a century old, has been restored, the walls have been painted and the worn woodwork has been replaced.
- The management of the University of Debrecen and the Clinical Centre attaches great importance to the preservation of the values handed down to us by our great predecessors. We have a great responsibility in preserving buildings and premises of historical importance. The Council Chamber, which was the seat of the University, has deteriorated considerably over the last decades and therefore needed to be renovated. In addition to renovating the walls and the floor, minor changes were made in order to improve the quality of the Clinical Centre's ceremonies, Zoltán Szabó, Vice-Rector and President of the Clinical Centre, told hirek.unideb.hu.
The modernisation of the Council Chamber is an integral part of the renovation process, which included the external reconstruction of the Presidential Office building, the construction of the facade lighting, the landscaping of the park and the restoration of the group of statues of the Professors.
Press Office - CzA
