Sibiu
- 2. Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania, with a population of 147,245.Located some 275 km (171 mi) north-west of Bucharest,the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt. Now the capital of Sibiu County, between 1692 and 1791 and 184965 Sibiu was also the capital of the Principality of Transylvania. Sibiu is one of the most important cultural centres of Romania and was designated the European Capital of Culture for the year 2007, along with the city of Luxembourg.Formerly the centre of the Transylvanian Saxons, the old city of Sibiu was ranked as "Europe's 8th-most idyllic place to live" by Forbes in 2008.The city also administers the village of Pltini, a ski resort located 35 kilometres to the south.
- 3. Sibiu was initially a Daco-Roman city called Cedonia. The town was refounded by the Saxons (German) settlers brought there by the king G辿za II of Hungary. The first reference to the area was Cipin and Cibinium from 1191 when Pope Celestine III confirmed the existence of the free prepositure of the Saxons in Transylvania, the prepositure having its headquarters in Sibiu. In the 14th century, it was already an important trade centre. In 1376, the craftsmen were divided in 19 guilds.
- 4. Sibiu became the most important ethnic German city among the seven cities that gave Transylvania its German name Siebenb端rgen. It was home to the Universitas Saxorum, 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. After World War I, when Austria- Hungary was dissolved, Sibiu became part of Romania; the majority of its population was still ethnic German 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 Johannis, the current President of Romania.
- 5. Sibiu is situated near the geographical center of Romania. Set in the Cibin Depression, the city is about 20 km from the Fgra Mountains, 12 km from the Cibin Mountains, and about 15 km from the Lotru Mountains, which border the depression in its southwestern section. The northern and eastern limits of Sibiu are formed by the T但rnavelor Plateau, which descends to the Cibin Valley through Guteriei Hill. The Cibin river as well as some smaller streams runs through Sibiu. The geographical position of Sibiu makes it one of the most important transportation hubs in Romania with important roads and railway lines passing through it.