Valea lui Mihai | city

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Valea lui Mihai (Hungarian: Érmihályfalva) is a town in the western part of Bihor county, Romania, close to the border between Romania and Hungary.

The first written record of the Hungarian settlement was made on 20th August 1270. The right of collecting customs fees was given to the settlement in 1302 by the Hungarian king Károly Róbert (Charles Robert I of the Angevin dinasty, reigning between 1308–1342). At that time the town had several names like Nogh Myhalfalva, Nogmyhal.
In the reign of the Hungarian king Mátyás Hunyadi (Matthias Corvinus Hunyadi, reigning between 1458-1490) the town was one of the 18 towns in county Bihar. In 1459 the right of holding markets was given to the town. In 1587 the Ottoman Empire occupied the town and the inhabitants had to flee. After the Turks had left the town, the inhabitants returned and soon they were converted to Calvinism. The destroyed church was rebuilt, the bell casted in 1491 in Nagyvárad (Romanian: Oradea) is still can be found in the belfry of the church.
In 1880 the number of inhabitants of Érmihályfalva was 1,594, all of them being Hungarians.
The railway lines built in 1871 between Szatmár (Romanian: Satu Mare) and Debrecen and in 1887 between Nagyvárad and Debrecen passed by the town.

From the end of the First World War the town became part of Romania by the Treaty of Trianon (4th June 1920). By the Second Vienna Award (1940) the town was returned to Hungary for a short time, but from 1945, as agreed on at the Treaty of Paris in 1947, the town entered again into possession of Romania.

During the communist regime a very strong industrialization of the town was carried on, several plants were built.
In 2002 the number of inhabitants of the town was 10,324 – from this number 8,757 Hungarians (84.82 percent), 1,442 Romanians, 95 Roma and 30 other nationalities.