Sebeș

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
(Redirected from Sebes)
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Sebeș
Municipality
Evangelical Church
Evangelical Church
Coat of arms of Sebeș
Coat of arms
Sebeș is located in Romania
Sebeș
Sebeș
Location of Sebeș
Coordinates: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Country  Romania
County Alba County
Status Municipality
Government
 • Mayor Adrian Alexandru Dăncilă (Social Democratic Party)
Area
 • Total 115.45 km2 (44.58 sq mi)
Population (October 20, 2011)
 • Total 24,165
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Website http://www.primariasebes.ro/

Sebeș (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈsebeʃ]; German: Mühlbach; Hungarian: Szászsebes; Transylvanian Saxon dialect: Melnbach) is a city in Alba County, central Romania, southern Transylvania.

Geography

The city lies on the Mureș River valley and it straddles the Sebeș river. It is at the crossroads of two main highways in Romania: European route E68 - DN1 coming from Sibiu and going towards Deva and European route E81 - DN7 coming from Sibiu and going towards Alba-Iulia and Cluj Napoca. A1 motorway (Romania) passes north and east of the city.

It is situated at 15 km south of the county capital Alba Iulia and it also has three villages under its administration:

  • Petrești (Petersdorf; Péterfalva) - 3.5 km south
  • Lancrăm (Langendorf; Lámkerék) – 2 km north
  • Răhău (Reichau; Rehó) - 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 Sebeș in 1540. The Transylvanian Diet met in Sebeș 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

The Zapolya building

Today Sebeș 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. As of March 2015, the unemployment rate is under 2%.[1]

Population

Historical population
Year Pop. ±%
1910 8,504 —    
1930 9,137 +7.4%
1948 10,080 +10.3%
1956 11,628 +15.4%
1966 13,715 +17.9%
1977 25,926 +89.0%
1992 29,754 +14.8%
2002 29,475 −0.9%
2011 24,165 −18.0%
Source: Census data

According to the 2011 census, Sebeș has 24,165 inhabitants, of which:[2]

  • Romanians: 22,551, representing 93.3% (in 1850: 69.4%)
  • Romani: 1.168, representing 4.8% (in 1850: 2.7%)
  • Germans: 261, representing 1.1% (in 1850: 27.0%)
  • Hungarians: 131, representing 0.5% (in 1850: 0.47%)
  • Others: 52, representing 0.3%

See also

References

External links