The nowadays Brasov conserves vivid its multicultural traditions.
The rich folkloric tradition of the Juni, at origin a initiation ritual to join the young boys community, has its origins in „Șchei”, heart of the material and spiritual civilization of the Romanians. Every year, in the Thomas' Sunday, the first after Easter, Junii descend in the „Stronghold”, reiterating a tradition with elements of myth, rite, ceremonial and magic, which opens every spring the „Brașov’s Days”.
In „Șchei” neighboruhood, near to the Saint Nicholas church, dating back according the tradition to the XIIIth century, there also is the First Romanian School, where Dean Coresi of Targoviste printed the biggest number of books in Romanian language of the XVIth century on the territory of the three principalities.
Inside the „Stronghold”, the school mentioned in documents in 1388, is reorganized at the middle of the XVIth century by the reformer of the Saxons of Transylvania, the humanist Johannes Honterus (1498-1544), who founds a library famous in the epoch and the first printing house. The first mention in the historical documents of the Magyar school of Brasov dates back to 1558.
During the first half of the XIXth century, the Romanian intellectual and cultural elite is gathered around the „Casinei române”, founded by the leaders of the Revolution of 1848, George Bariţiu, the founder of „The Gazette of Transylvania”, in 1838 (the first political and informative newspaper of the Romanians living in the principality, with the supplement „Paper for mind, heart and literature”), and the poet Andrei Mureşianu, the composer of the lyrics of the hymn of the Revolution of 1848, „Deșteaptă-te române! ”, became since 1990 the national anthem.
The operetta „Crai nou" composed by Ciprian Porumbescu (1853-1883) has been played for the first time in the Festive Hall of the nowadays National College "Andrei Şaguna", where during the last years of his life, the composer used to teach music.
The „Gheorghe Dima” Philarmonique of Brasov continues the centennal musical tradition of Brasov, promoted during the decades around 1900 by Kronstädter Philharmonische Gesellschaft, by the remarkable personalities who leaded it, the conductors and composers Anton Brandner – its founder, Gheorghe Dima, Paul Richter, Tiberiu Brediceanu, Constantin Bobescu.
The first concert of the philharmonic society of Brasov of May 6th 1878, took place in the hall founded by Samuel Abraham, in 1794, destined to both the balls and the musical and theatre representations, hosted since 1894 by its new seat, in which even today unfolds its activity the Cultural Centre „Reduta”.
The County Library „George Barițiu” hosts nowadays over 280.000 tomes with encyclopaedic character, founded on the book patrimony of „Casina Româna” (1835), partially included in the patrimony of the „Transylvanian Association for Literature and Culture of the Romanian People” - ASTRA (1861), which had the initiative to open, in 1830, the public library „Dr. Alexandru Bogdan", with the seat in the Dr. Baiulescu House, which functions since 1969 inside the building of the former Chamber of Commerce.
The Artists' Union, the first institution of its kind of the after war Romania, has been founded and led since 1944, by the painter Hans Mattis Teutsch, a remarkable representative of the European avant-garde.
After World War II there were founded the Dramatic Theatre „Sică Alexandrescu” (1946), The Puppets Theatre „Arlechino” (1949) and the Musical Theatre, 1953), today the „Opera Brasov”.
In 1950 is established the Regional Museum, through the gathering of the collections hosted by the Saxon Museum of Țara Bârsei and ASTRA, split in 1990 in the Art Museum, The History and Ethnography Museum and the Museum of the Urban Civilisation, founded in 2010. The Memorial Museum „Casa Mureșenilor”, a section of the History Museum, since 1968, and an independent institution since 1997.