Sfântu Gheorghe

:"This article is about the city in Covasna County, Romania. There are five other localities called Sfântu Gheorghe in Romania, among them Sfântu Gheorghe, Tulcea."Infobox Settlement
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = ROU
timezone=EET
utc_offset=+2
timezone_DST=EEST
utc_offset_DST=+3
map_caption = Location of Sfântu Gheorghe
|official_name=Sfântu Gheorghe
Sepsiszentgyörgy


image_shield=
subdivision_type1=County
subdivision_name1=Covasna County
subdivision_type2=Status
subdivision_name2=Autolink|County capital
settlement_type=County capital|
leader_title=Mayor
leader_name=Antal Árpád
|leader_party=from Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania
area_total_km2=
population_as_of=2002
population_total=61543|latd=45|latm=51|lats=49|latNS=N|longd=25|longm=47|longs=15|longEW=E|
website=http://www.sfantugheorghe.ro/

Sfântu Gheorghe (also spelled "Sfîntu Gheorghe" in Romanian) or Sepsiszentgyörgy (in Hungarian; _yi. סנט דשזארדזש) is a municipality and city in the central Romanian region of Transylvania. It lies on the Olt River in a valley between the Baraolt and Bodoc Mountains. Sfântu Gheorghe is the capital of Covasna County. The villages of Chilieni / Kilyén and Coşeni / Szotyor are also administratively part of Sfântu Gheorghe Municipality.

Demographics

The majority of the city's inhabitants are Székely Hungarians. In the census of 2002, 46,178 (75%) of the city's 61,543 inhabitants classed themselves as ethnic Hungarians, 14,178 (23%) as Romanians, 932 as ethnic Roma, and 255 as "others."

History

Sfântu Gheorghe is one of the oldest cities in Transylvania, the settlement first having been documented in 1332. The city takes it name from Saint George, the patron of the local church. Historically it was also known in German as "Sankt Georgen". The Sepsi prefix denotes the origins of the local Szekler population which has its roots in the region of Sebeş in Western Transylvania's (Alba county, Fehér or Alsó-Fehér in Hungarian), where a town with a similar name Sebiş in Romanian or Szászsebes in Hungarian,is located. The town Sebiş became inhabited later mostly by Transylvanian Saxons which had called it Mühlbach.

While part of the Kingdom of Hungary, the city was the economic and administrative center of the Hungarian county of Háromszék, which spanned the present-day Covasna county and parts of Braşov county. In the second half of the 19th century, Sepsiszentgyörgy witnessed the development of light industry, namely a textile and a cigarette factory was built. It became part of the Kingdom of Romania following the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, after the end of World War I. After the Second Vienna Award in 1940 the city came under Hungarian control for 4 years. At the end of the Second World War the Paris Peace Treaties reaffirmed the city and the entire Transylvania as a Romanian territory. From 1952 it was the southernmost town of the Hungarian Autonomous Province, abolished finally in 1968 when Romania was reorganised based on counties rather than regions.

Sfântu Gheorghe is one of the centres for the Székely people in the region known to them as Székelyföld, and is home to the Székely National Museum. The city hosts two market fairs each year.

ights

* Fortified Church ( _ro. Biserică Fortificată; _hu. Vártemplom) - constructed in the 14th century in the Gothic style
* State Archive, the former headquarters of the Hussar battalions
* County library constructed in 1832 as the seat of the county council
* Theater used from 1854–1866 as the city hall
* The market bazaar built in 1868, with a clock tower built in 1893

Economy

The predominant industry in the city is the textile industry.