Sebeş

Infobox Settlement
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = ROU
timezone=EET
utc_offset=+2
timezone_DST=EEST
utc_offset_DST=+3
map_caption = Location of Sebeş

|official_name=Sebeş


image_shield=Coa Sebes RO.gif
subdivision_type1=County
subdivision_name1=Alba County
subdivision_type2=Status
subdivision_name2=Autolink|Municipality
settlement_type=Municipality|
leader_title=Mayor
leader_name=Adrian Alexandru Dăncilă
leader_party=Social Democratic Party
|area_total_km2=115.54
population_as_of=01.07.2007
population_total=29225|latd=45|latm=57|lats=36|latNS=N|longd=23|longm=34|longs=12|longEW=E|
website=http://www.primariasebes.ro/

Sebeş (German: "Mühlbach", Hungarian: "Szászsebes") is a city in Alba County, central Romania, southern Transylvania.

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Geography

The city lies on the Mureş River valley and it straddles the Sebeş river. It is at the crossroads of two main highways in Romania: E68 European route - DN1 coming from Sibiu and going towards Deva and E81 European route - DN7 coming from Sibiu and going towards Alba-Iulia and Cluj Napoca.

It is situated at 15 km south of the county capital Alba Iulia and it also has under its administration the following villages:
*Petreşti - 3.5 km south
*Lancrăm – 2 km north
*Rahău - 6 km east.

History

It is believed that there has been an earlier rural settlement in this area, with Romanian and Pecheneg population, situated east of today's city. But the city itself was built by German settlers - later referred as Transylvanian Saxons, but actually originating from the region of Rhine and Moselle - on the territory of the Hungarian Kingdom in the second half of the 12th century and became an important city in medieval Transylvania. Its city walls were reinforced after the Tatar (Mongol) invasions from 1241-1242, but the city was occupied in 1438 by the Ottoman Empire. Transylvania's voivode John I Zápolya died in Sebeş in 1540. The Transylvanian Diet met in Sebeş in 1546, 1556, 1598 and 1600. The location of the meetings, the Zápolya House, is now a museum.

After the union with Romania in 1918, the first mayor of the city was Lionel Blaga, the brother of the Romanian poet and philosopher Lucian Blaga, who was born in the nearby village of Lancrăm.

Economy

Today Sebeş is a city with a dynamic economy, having received in the last decade important foreign investments: wood processing and leather goods manufacturing are the chief domains of the local industry.

Population

According to the latest Census (2002), Sebeş has 27,698 inhabitants, of which:
*Romanians: 25,332, representing 90.54% (in 1850: 69.4%)
*Romas: 3,385, representing 7.00% (in 1850: 2.7%)
*Germans: 420, representing 1.52% (in 1850: 27.0%)
*Hungarians: 212, representing 0.77% (in 1850: 0.47%)
* Others: 49, representing 0.17% [http://recensamant.referinte.transindex.ro/?pg=3&id=4 Transindex Recensamânt 2002 website] Retrieved 2007-05-14] , [http://varga.adatbank.transindex.ro/?pg=3&action=etnik&id=4148 Varga E. Árpád: "Erdély etnikai és felekezeti statisztikája (1850-1992)"] Retrieved 2007-05-14]

Links

* [http://www.siebenbuerger.de/ortschaften/muehlbach/bilder.html Photos, new and old ones reflecting the Saxon influence and some landscape - BILDER]
*Transylvania Saxons in Siebenburger cities
* [http://www.orasulsebes.ro All about the city of Sebes.]

References