The first public library in Brasov, functioning on regular basis was founded in 1835, as part of the Romanian Casina. The book collection was partially transferred into the patrimony of ASTRA Library. This Transylvanian Cultural Association, founded in 1861, has the initiative of opening in 1930 the „Dr. Alexandru Bogdan“ Public Library, hosted by an old and beautiful house, built in 1888 and called The Baiulescu House. The central premises of the County Library, situated on 35 Eroilor Boulevard, since 1969, is in a building from 1926-1928, placed in a splendid scenery, in the historical centre of Brasov and near the road to Poiana-Brasov. Since 1992 the County Library from Brasov is named George Baritiu.

George Baritiu
(1812 – 1893)

An educator, politician, historian and journalist, he is considered the founder of the Romanian printed media in Transilvania. Born in Jucul de Jos village, the county of Cluj, he studied at Rimetea, Blaj and Cluj. Beginning with 1836, he settled in Brasov as a teacher in the school of the fortified city. During the long period of his staying in Brasov, he carried on a rich cultural and political activity. As an educator, he drew up a series of studies and articles, among which: A Dissertation on Schools, for All Believers in the Greek Religion from Brasov (1835), The Education, the Teacher, the Man (1839), The Illumination and the Truth (1838), The Education, the Truth and the Culture (1848). On the 12th of March, 1838, George Baritiu published The Gazette of Transilvania, the first political newspaper of the Romanians from Transilvania, a periodical whose editor-in-chief he had been until 1850. In 1866, he became founder member of the Academic Society in Bucharest, and in 1893 – the president of the Romanian Academy.