Szent-Györgyi Albert Általános Iskola és Gimnázium

Could a school building whisper tales of Nobel laureates and literary giants? Here at Szent-Györgyi Albert Általános Iskola és Gimnázium, the walls certainly do. Szent-Györgyi Albert Általános Iskola és Gimnázium isn’t just any school. It’s a place where history and education intertwine, a place where the echoes of remarkable minds resonate through the halls. The school first opened its doors in March 1950, occupying two former school buildings. One, at Lónyay utca 6, originally served as an elementary school starting in 1873. The other, a magnificent structure at Lónyay u. 4/c, housed the Lónyay Református Gimnázium from 1888. Szent-Györgyi Albert Általános Iskola és Gimnázium carries a legacy marked by both challenge and transformation. During World War II, the elementary school suffered damage in 1941, and the Lónyay Református Gimnázium relocated in 1943. After the war, the buildings served various purposes until education returned in 1950. Initially, they housed separate girls’ and boys’ schools, each with around sixty students. The schools even operated in two shifts to accommodate everyone. By the mid-1960s, both schools became co-educational. Szent-Györgyi Albert Általános Iskola és Gimnázium expanded its language offerings beyond the standard Russian. German was introduced, followed by French in 1962 in the girls’ school, which remains a prominent part of the curriculum. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the girls’ school, and later the combined institution, adopted the name of Dr. Stollár Béla, a former student of the Reformed Gymnasium. A fascinating piece of history lies in the electronic calculating machine developed by Levendovszky Tihamér, headmaster of the girls’ school in the 1960s. This innovation was a precursor to the educational computers that would later become commonplace. The two schools merged in 1975, forming a unified institution with a French section. This period also saw significant renovations, including double-glazed windows, connecting stairways between the buildings, and the removal of the dividing wall in the courtyard. Under Horvath Lajosné’s leadership from 1978, the school’s focus shifted towards enhancing educational programs. Major renovations between 1979 and 1983 included converting to central heating, a new cafeteria and gym, and updated lighting in the gymnasiums. The school faced further challenges when structural issues in the Lónyay u. 6 building necessitated repairs and a return to two-shift teaching. Following these repairs, specialized classrooms for subjects like history, Hungarian, physics, geography, chemistry, and biology were created, along with the introduction of computers in the mid-1980s. The fall of communism in 1989 brought about a restructuring led by Sarinay Mihályné. A four-year gymnasium program was introduced, later expanding to eight years in 1993. Szent-Györgyi Albert Általános Iskola és Gimnázium gained its current name in 1993, honoring Nobel laureate Szent-Györgyi Albert, who attended the Lónyay Református Gimnázium from 1903 to 1911. This period also saw the school reclaim the second floor of the Lónyay u. 4/c building and ground floor rooms. Today, Szent-Györgyi Albert Általános Iskola és Gimnázium continues to uphold traditions established since its “rebirth”. An annual school day celebration showcases the talents of all students. The Szent-Györgyi Memorial Medal recognizes outstanding academic and community achievements, with recipients’ names etched on the leaves of the “Szent-Györgyi tree”. In 2011, a memorial plaque honoring Molnár Ferenc, another notable alumnus of the Lónyay u. 4/c building, was unveiled, adding another layer to this school’s rich tapestry of history.