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Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, a historical region of Romania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt. Now the capital of the Sibiu County, between 1692 and 1791 and 1849–65 Sibiu was also the capital of the Principality of Transylvania. Nicknamed The City with Eyes, the city is a well-known tourist destination for both domestic and foreign visitors. Known for its culture, history, gastronomy and diverse architecture, which includes the iconic houses with eyes that gave Sibiu its nickname, the city has garnered significant attention since the beginning of the 21st century. In 2004, its historical center began the process of becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sibiu was designated the European Capital of Culture in 2007. One year later, it was ranked "Europe's 8th-most idyllic place to live" by Forbes. In 2019, Sibiu was named the European Region of Gastronomy. Sibiu will host the European Wandering Capital event in 2021, the most important tourist wandering event in Europe. A European Union summit was hosted by the city in 2019. Sibiu is also known for its Christmas market. Personalities include Conrad Haas and Hermann Oberth, who were pioneers of rocketry. The company Elrond, which created the eGold cryptocurrency (among the biggest in the world), was founded by people from Sibiu. As of 2011, the city has a population of 147,245, while a 2019 estimate puts it at 169,056. The proposed Sibiu metropolitan area has a population of 267,170. The city also administers the village of Păltiniș, a ski resort located 35 kilometres to the southwest. Historically, Sibiu has been one of the most important centres of the Transylvanian Saxons. It is called Härmeschtat in their own local dialect. [edit] History
Sibiu was initially a Daco-Roman city called Cedonia. The town was refounded by Saxon (German) settlers brought there by king Géza II of Hungary. They came from territories of the Holy Roman Empire and Kingdom of France (nowadays parts of Germany, France and the Benelux countries) and arrived at around 1147. The first references to the area were Cibinium and Cipin from 1191 when Pope Celestine III confirmed the existence of the free prepositure of the Saxons in Transylvania, having its headquarters in Sibiu. The city also used the names Prepositus Cibiniensis (1192–1196) and Prepositus Scibiniensis (1211). In 1223, it was renamed to Villa Hermanni, either in honor of archbishop Hermann II of Cologne or after a man who is believed to have founded the city, Hermann of Nuremberg. The actual German name of Hermannstadt ("Hermann's city") dates from 1366, while an earlier form, Hermannsdorf ("Hermann's village") was recorded in 1321. In the 14th century, it was already an important trade centre. 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 name Siebenbürgen (literally seven citadels). It was home to the Universitas Saxorum (Community of the Saxons), a network of pedagogues, ministers, intellectuals, city officials, and councilmen of the German community forging an ordered legal corpus and political system in Transylvania since the 1400s. In 1699, after the Ottomans withdrew to their base of power in Hungary and Transylvania, the town became capital of Principality of Transylvania (since 1570 the principality was mostly under suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, however often had a dual vassalage). During the 18th and 19th centuries, the city became the second- and later the first-most important centre of Transylvanian Romanian ethnics. 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 Austrian Empire from the 1860s onwards, Sibiu became the Metropolitan seat, and the city is still regarded as the third-most important centre of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Between the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 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; the majority of its population was still ethnic German (until 1941) and counted a large Romanian community, as well as a smaller Hungarian one. Starting from the 1950s and until after 1990, most of the city's ethnic Germans emigrated to Germany and Austria. Among the roughly 2,000 who have remained is Klaus Iohannis, the President of Romania.
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