Gheorghe Lazăr

He studied in Nagyszeben (Sibiu), Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca), and Vienna, training in theology, but also interested in history and philosophy.

He later had to flee for Wallachia, where he worked as a tutor and engineer, drawing admiration from boyar Constantin Bălăceanu, who was charged with the administration of schools throughout the Principality.

Lazăr was one of the first wave of Romanian Transylvanian teachers to shape schooling in both Wallachia and Moldavia throughout the 19th century.

Today a great number of Romanian high schools are named in his honour.

The one erected during the communist regime in Sibiu's main square, controversial because of its Socialist Realist style, was removed and is due to be replaced with a more conventional portrait.