Historic Center

Romania / Sibiu /

fortification, Medieval / Middle Ages, invisible, historic city center, historic district, town centre

It was founded on the site of an older settlement, probably Slavonic, after the middle of the twelfth century by Saxon colonists from the Rhine-Moselle territory. The first mention of the city is made in 1191 under the name Cibinium (only Upper Town) in an ecclesiastical document from the Vatican. , But there are mentions of the name Villa Cibiniensi (1292 - Lower Town) and Villa Hermani in 1223, sub-city border belonging to Cibinium.
In 1241 was attacked, captured and partly destroyed by the Mongol hordes. First attested form of Hermannstadt dates from 1366.
In the 14th century, it was already an important trade center. In 1376 the craftsmen were divided in 19 guilds. Sibiu became the most important ethnic German city among the seven cities that gave Transylvania its German language name of Siebenbürgen, and it was home to the Universitas Saxorum, the Assembly of Germans in Transylvania. Common opinion in the 17th century ascribed Sibiu the quality of being the easternmost city to be part of the European sphere; it was also the eastern terminus of postal routes.
The city was Capital of Transylvania between 1692-1791 and 1849-1865
During the 18th and 19th centuries the city also became one of the most important centers for ethnic Romanians in the region. The first Romanian-owned bank had its headquarters here (The Albina Bank), as did the ASTRA (Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and Romanian's People Culture). After the Romanian Orthodox Church was granted status in the Habsburg Empire from the 1860s onwards, Sibiu became the Metropolitan seat, and the city preserved its title as the third most important center for the Church in modern Romania. Between the 1848 Hungarian Revolution and 1867 (the year of the Ausgleich), Sibiu was the meeting-place of the Transylvanian Diet, which had taken its most representative form after the Empire agreed to extend voting rights in the region.
After World War I, when Austria-Hungary was dissolved, Sibiu became part of Romania; still, the majority of its population was ethnic German and Hungarian. After 1990 most of the city's ethnic Germans emigrated to Germany.