Sibiu

The town of Sibiu (in German Hermannstadt , in Hungarian Nagyszeben ) is the chief town of the Judeţ de Sibiu. It is the traditional arts center of the Saxons of Transylvania and shares a bond with the town of Braşov.

Today, more than 95% of the inhabitants are Rumanian, the Hungarian and the Germans forming of the minorities in the city. However, the current mayor re-elected with 88,7% of the voices, Klaus Johannis, is of German origin.

The city is served by the international airport of Sibiu (SBZ), with daily connections with Bucharest, the Italy, the Austria and the Germany.

Sibiu was indicated European Capitale of the culture for the year 2007, title which it divides with Luxembourg.

Geography and climate

Sibiu is located close to the geographical center of Romania, in the south of the Transylvania. Placed in the depression of Cibin which is crossed by the homonymous river, the city is to 20 km of the Mountains of Făgăraş, to 12 km of the Mountains of Cibin and to approximately 15 km of the Lotrului mountains, which border the depression in south-west. In north and the east, Sibiu confines with the Plate of Târnave, which goes down towards the valley from Cibin by the Guşteriţei hill.

The climate of Sibiu is moderate-continental, with a temperature of 8 with 9° C. the multiannuelle average of precipitations is of 662 l/m ² and per annum roughly 120 days ago of hard freezing.

Historical reference marks

In old Transylvania saxonne, Sibiu was the chief town of the pulpit of Sibiu ( Hermannstädter Stuhl ), the most important storage area of the Saxons Transylvanians. This pulpit, most important also as for the surface, extended to the south to the chain from the Carpates, and was limited to the east, north, and the west, respectively by the pulpits of Nocrich/Leschkirch, Mediaş/Mediasch and Miercurea Sibiului/Reußmarkt. They is here that the commercial main roads of Transylvania converged, including that towards the south, in direction of the Valachie, by the collar of the red Tower ( not Turnu Roşu ; allem. Rotenturmpass ). This localization with a crossroads of lanes, to be beneficial with the urban development, however was worth to him at the same time to undergo in a way repeated during its history of violent one attacks.

Cutting

The agglomeration is composed of the following zones and districts:

The high City ( Oraşul de Sus , allem. Oberstadt ) and the low Ville ( Oraşul de Jos , allem. Unterstadt ), which constitute the old city together;

Then: the Valley of gold ( Valea Aurie , allem. Goldtal ), Hippodrom I-IV, Vasile Aaron , Piaţa Cluj (allem. Konradwiese ), Ştrand and Ţiglari .

Lastly, the villages of Turnişor (allem. Neppendorf ) and of Guşteriţa (allem. Hammersdorf ), become suburbs, also form part of the urban center.

History

The first German colonists reached the area in 1143; they were established on the hill dominating the river Cibin, the current high city. The first certificate of a human establishment is on a charter of 1191, under the name of praepositum Cibiniensem ; a priory was founded, and the Latin name of Villa Hermanni is attested as from 1223.

In 1241, the city was destroyed during the Mongolian invasion, but is restored some promptly. With the XIVe century, Hermannstadt evolved/moved in an important shopping mall. The city was one of the German cities most important of the Transylvania, even undoubtedly most important, because in addition to being a shopping mall, administrative and ecclesiastical, it had also the most extended fortifications of all Transylvania.

Vis-a-vis the Turkish threat, the city made raise 3 wall enclosures (which were partially preserved until today), with tens of turns and several large doors. On several occasions, Hermannstadt was besieged by the Turks, but resisted; never the Turks managed to seize the city, which was worth to him the nickname of Bastion of Christendom . However, the armies, of passage or besieging the city, did not leave devastate the surrounding grounds. Single once only, the Hungarian sovereign of Transylvania, Gabriel Báthory, succeeds, using of stratagem, to occupy the city, to plunder it, and to relegate out of the walls all the German inhabitants.

Hermannstadt was the political center of Saxon of Transylvania and seat of the Universitas Saxonum , way of Transylvanian Parliament, which until 1878 undertook to defend the interests of Saxon of Transylvania and constituted the symbol of their unit and their independence policies.

The city was purely German until the first decade of the XVIIIe century. It is only after Transylvania had been attached to the Austria-Hungary that the old laws, according to which it was interdict with other nationalities to be established in the city, were abolished. With the XVIIIe century, Hermannstadt could be enorgueillir to be, among the towns of Europe connected to the postal system, that located more at the east.

At the conclusion of the First World War, the city, although remained mainly populated Germans, and that having been during long centuries under Hungarian or Austrian political supervision, was built-in 1920 with the Romania by the Traité of Trianon. The city kept nevertheless its gothic script. It is only in the current of decade 1930 that the Saxon Transylvanians lost the absolute majority in their metropolis.

Population

The population currently rises with 170.000 inhabitants.

The ethnic distribution is as follows:

• Rumanian 95,0%
• Hungarian 2,0%
• German 1,6%
• Others 1,4%

18 percent of the population are titular of a diploma of higher education.

German presence

At December 31st, 2003 in Hermannstadt 1.464 Germans of evangelic confession lived, which carries to estimate the full number of Germans in this city at some 2.000 people (either 1,3%, high estimate).

In spite of the massive emigrations which had taken place since the middle of the decade 1970, there still remained in Sibiu, until the end of the Communist regime in Romania, some 20.000 Saxon Transylvanians. However, after 1990, their relative share in the population of the city dropped quickly and constantly, until falling down, with a rate of approximately 1,6%, in lower part of that of the Hungarian minority. Nevertheless, the city is become again meanwhile officially bilingual; plates of names of locality and tourist information are made out at the same time in Rumanian and German; and administratively, the city is indicated today by bilingual name Sibiu/Hermannstadt.

A review of German language, the Hermannstädter Zeitung , appears each week. It exists nursery schools and primary German, as well as college German (the college Brukenthal ), which enjoys an excellent reputation in all the country, and allows to prepare in German a baccalaureat which is also recognized by the universities of Germany. There is also the teaching Lycée , training center of the future teachers and teachers German-speaking. German is language of teaching in 4 establishment of higher education (the Lyzeen ), and with the university of the city, certain courses can also be followed in German. Y is established, in addition, a German faculty of evangelic theology, within which the evangelic church A.C. (i.e. claiming confession of Augsburg - Augsburger Bekenntnis , or A.B. , in German) of Romania trains his priests. It is advisable to also mention an Academy of the evangelic church A.C. with Neppendorf, a German evangelic old people's home (the Carl-Wolf-Altenheim ), without forgetting an intense Community life. There exists also a private publisher ( Hora Verlag ), which regularly makes appear new publications in German language, as well as a modern printing works (the Honterus-Druckerei ), which is with the hands of the German minority, and whose productions are of an high level of quality.

After the exodus of the majority of the Saxon Transylvanians, all objects of importance, that they are objets d'art, liturgical objects, missals, registers, documents of files, etc, were transferred from the dissolved evangelic communities and the villages given up towards the rooms from files, deposits and libraries episcopal, and placed in sure place. It is today the Arts center and of meeting Friedrich Teutsch which shelters the central files of the German minority; those include/understand a rich person collection of objects and documents historical, composing a treasure of a value priceless, held up to date and filed since years, in particular thanks to the financial support of the foundation Volkswagen. The same place also lodges the Landeskirchliches Museum der Evangelischen Kirche A.B in Rumänien , the museum of the evangelic church A.C. of Romania.

Lastly, the consistory evangelic of the district of Sibiu, another important institution of the German minority, is established in this city, just as the bishop evangelic of the Saxon Transylvanians resides at it, Doctor Christoph Klein, which holds a considerable role in the process of integration of the German minority in Transylvania.

It is also advisable to appreciate with its right value the fact that since the year the 2000 city is again directed by a burgomaster (mayor) German, Klaus Johannis. This one, extremely popular because of its rigorous management and its integrity, was re-elected in 2004 with 88,7% of the votes. The party of German minority DFDR having obtained the majority at the municipal council (and even, since 2004, the absolute majority), the Saxon ones remained in Sibiu are again in situation to exert the power in their city. These circumstances are called upon, among others, to explain the extent of the direct investments coming from German-speaking countries from which Sibiu profited these last years.

the history and the culture of the Germans in Transylvania constitutes a side of the common European heritage which it is advisable to preserve and transmit, here as in the countries where the Second world war and its consequences put an end to a sometimes secular German presence. I lately travelled much between Tartu, to Estonia, old Dorpat, and Timişoara to Romania. It is beautiful to see at which point the young democracies of this area regard the cultural heritage of Saxon of Transylvania as theirs and try to make it live, in spite of the extreme economic difficulties.
Speech made by Günter Verheugen at the time of the festival of Saxon of Transylvania, in 2001, with Dinkelsbühl.

Demographic trends

Religions

The distribution of the denominational groups arises as follows:

• Orthodoxe (91,0%)
• Roman catholics (2%)
• Gréco-catholics (1,5%)
• Lutherans (1%)
• Reformed (1%)
• Unitarian (0,5%)
• Jewish (0,1%)

Economic life

Sibiu is one of the most prosperous cities of Romania, and also a city where the overseas investments are among highest of the country. The saving in Sibiu made since the beginning of the decade 2000 uninterrupted great strides, still reinforced by the growth of tourism, the real investments in the old city, and by the efforts which were authorized as regards public infrastructures, very badly in point after 40 years of Communist regime. The Unemployment rate, of approximately 3,3%, is located clearly in lower part of the Rumanian average of 5-6%.

Sibiu is an important center of manufacture of automobile components ( Bilstein-Compa , Takata , Continental , and the company SNR for the rolls of the dice). Among the other activities present at Sibiu, let us announce: the manufacture of mechanical and electric components, the textile and agribusiness industry.

But what first of all strikes, when the list of the overseas investments is examined, it is the considerable share which take there the German and Austrian firms. It seems that the personality of the burgomaster Klaus Johannis is not foreign with this Germanic prevalence. One can quote, among the companies established in the industrial park “Western”, located in the vicinity direct of the airport:

• the group Bramac , Austrian manufacturer of tiles, who opened a workshop of production with Sibiu in September 2004, at the end of building work one duration of only nine months. Moreover, the seat of the firm was transferred from Braşov to Sibiu.

• the firm Continental , which brought into service in July 2004 a new production unit of automatic devices for doors of car; the first stone was posed by it in September 2003. 216 work stations were created thus on the whole, including 135 for engineers under development.

• the firm Marquardt , which has in Sibiu, since 2006, a unit of completion, a surface adding up, for the production and the administration, some 6.800m ².

• the Austrian firm Greiner-Gruppe , specialized in the techniques of packing.

• the Siemens AG , present at Sibiu by its three establishments ( Simea , Siemens Electrical Installation Technology , A&D Sykatek ), where electromechanical components, metal elements and electronic devices are manufactured. Siemens currently employs (2007) some 400 workers with Sibiu. More than 800 additional work stations will be created during the next years.

• the company Thyssen Krupp Bilstein Compa, occupying 1800 workers, automobile équimentier.

• the firm Wienerberger , first brick global manufacturer, operating in Sibiu after resumption and modernization of an existing brickyard. The firm announced in 2004 to want to invest 9 million euros in this production site.

• Subway , which opened a large supermarket of large ( Cash&Carry ).

Moreover, the city lodges a great number of subsidiary companies of various other German and Austrian companies ( BauMax , Plus , Raiffeisenbank , HVB , etc), and is the seat of the Deutscher Wirtschaftsclub Siebenbürgen (DWS), association of Rumanian right, founded in 1998 in Sibiu, aiming at promoting the commercial relations between the the Federal Republic of Germany and Romania, and to which are affiliated more than 70 companies (sit. 2005).

Lastly, the city shelters the largest purse of values of the country, after that of Bucharest.

Distribution of employment by economic sector

• Industry - 49%
• Trade - 15%
• Construction - 7,5%
• Health - 7,5%
• Teaching - 7%
• Transport - 6,5%

Transportation routes

Air links

The city has an airport, located on the road of Alba Iulia, and from which leave the direct flights bound for Vienna, of Munich, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, and several Italian and Rumanian cities. At the beginning of 2006, the decision was taken jointly by the municipality of Sibiu and the council of district of Sibiu to increase the airport considerably. The administration of the district did not cease propelling since then this development project of the airport vigorously, with the support in particular of the European Banque of investment. This one granted a credit the amount of 40 million euros for the lengthening of the take-off runway, the construction of a terminal and the increase in the number of parking bays. Work started already, but will extend over several years still.

Rail links

The connection of Sibiu to the railway network appears less favorable. The railway connecting Vinţu de Jos to Braşov, which serves also the town of Sibiu, is not electrified, not more than the Sibiu connection - Mediaş.

Formerly, a railway line with narrow gauge railway (the “Wusch”) connected Sibiu to Sighişoara by the valley of Hârtibaciul (Valea Hârtibaciului, allem. Harbachtal). However, after one period when, as from the years 1960, the service was not ensured already any more by this local train beyond the town of Agnita, the Rumanian Railroads (CFR) made finally the decision to cease the exploitation completely of it.

A tram makes several times per day the way of 8 km between Sibiu and Răşinari, small town located at the foot of the Carpates (and in which the writer Emil Cioran is originating). This line is familiarly called “Express train Cheese”, by allusion to the community activity of much of the inhabitants of the Mărginimea Sibiului (name which one could, a little freely, to translate by `back-country of Sibiu'), area in the south-west of Sibiu, in which Răşinari is. There exists in addition, to replace the network of trams, removed in 1983, several lines of Trolleybus, in particular bound for the airport.

Highway network

Thanks to the European highways E68 (Trunk road 1) and E81 (Trunk road 7), Sibiu is well connected to the international highway network. Coming from the direction of Deva, to the west, these highways cross the agglomeration of Sibiu to separate, in the south of the city, in two branches, one taking the direction is towards Braşov (E68/N1), and the other moving towards the south, through Carpates Southerners, by the collar of the red Tower, to serve the Valachie and Bucharest (E81/N7). Another important road link is the main road 14 towards north, in direction of Mediaş and Sighişoara. At the present time (2006) is in the course of construction a broad highway by-pass, called to fit then in the highway axis A1 Arad (close to the Hungarian border) - Deva - Sibiu - Râmnicu Vâlcea - Bucharest . The sections until Făgăraş (in direction of Braşov) and until Deva (in direction of Arad and the Hungary, by the valley Mureş) were already arranged in expressways and right now are strongly requested by an increasingly intense circulation of transit.

Historic buildings

The town of Sibiu and its surroundings are undoubtedly among the most visited places of all Romania. She, rightly, is regarded as one of the historical cities most beautiful and best preserved, not only of all Romania, but also of Europe. The old strengthened city of Hermannstadt was saved by the Second world war, and, miraculeusement, escaped the unfortunate urban interventions from the mode from Ceauşescu (undoubtedly she was considered to be too small to serve of window of the Communisme, and as more, the son of the conducatore, Nicolae “Nicu” Ceauşescu, had responsibilities in the city and liked to remain there). Sibiu offers, on an total surface area not exceeding the 80 hectares, a rich person pallets monuments of medieval architecture, Renaissance and Baroque, and knew to preserve the spirit and the atmosphere of the completed centuries. The historical center is since 2004 in authority of recognition by UNESCO under World heritage.

Sibiu can be prevailed of a whole of museums of great interest, organized in a dozen institutions, which either hold collections of art and painting, or are devoted to decorative arts, archeology, anthropology, the history, the industrial archeology, the history of arts and trades, or to the natural science.

The city is located near the Făgăraş Mounts, paradise of the hikers, and the popular winter sports resort of Păltiniş. Moreover, it is in the middle of the old communities saxonnes of Transylvania, known inter alia for their strengthened churches (allem. Wehrkirchen).

The low city

The low city ( Oraşul of jos , allem. Unterstadt ), which corresponds to the zone between the Cibin river in the west and the edge of a plate in contrehaut in the east, developed in parallel with the first strengthened enclosure. This one, sacrificed to industrial development and modern town planning at the end of the 19th century, did not leave in the low city any visible vestige. Only two turns of fortification remain today, but they belong to the fourth enclosure (see below), and were built in the middle of the 16th century. In a a little unexpected way for a medieval city, the streets appear rather long and broad, alternating with small places. The houses on two floors and vast roof, of a rather rustic architecture, equipped with a gate giving access at an interior court, are characteristic of this district. However, the low city includes/understands 18 buildings having preserved medieval elements of XVe at the XVIIe century; these buildings for the majority are located in the streets of May 9th (stradă May 8th) and Ocna (stradă Ocnei).

The stradă the May 9th , oldest of the streets of the city, in the past Elisabethgasse , has 7 classified buildings historic building, most important of which is located with the n° 43, a house of XVIe siècle.
The Dragoner place, with the intersection of the str. May 9th and of the stradă Ocnei, can be regarded as the center of the low city; until 1976 drew up in its medium a building baroque and neo-classic, of 1800, who formerly lodged the seat of the Austrian dragons. The stradă Ocnei , another important artery of the old city, which leaves the Door of Ocna (Poartă Ocnei), in north, and emerges in the Small Place, aligns several old houses: that located with the n° 3, in the past inn of the white Lamb ( Mielul Alb ), date of XVe century, though altered later on; that carrying the n° 22, dating from XIV-XVe century, is one of the oldest houses of Sibiu.

Picturesque Pasajul Aurarilor (passage of the Goldsmiths, Fingerlingsstiege), which makes the junction between the Piaţă Aurarilor (place of the Goldsmiths, named Fingerlingsplatz until 1947) and the Small Place (Piaţă Mică, Kleiner Ring) and ends in a staircase, is one of the most romantic places of Sibiu. It is bordered of several houses of the 16th century. In the court of the building n° 5 (Xvi-XVIIIe century) one can observe a wall fragment of the third enclosure of fortification (v. below); opposite, on the left, the lower part of a tower of fortification (XIIIe) is which belonged to the second enclosure, and which some houses on the Small Place also integrated.

One finds other houses old on the stradă Nouă (street Neuve, Neugasse), where the group of old houses most homogeneous of the city was preserved, and on the stradă Turnului (street of the Tower), where the buildings preserved, in spite of changes undergone by their frontages at the 19th century, their volumetry of origin.

The Piaţă Armelor is dominated by the building of the arsenal, whose existence is attested for the first time in 1427, and who made function, in turn, of inn, arsenal and military barracks. The oldest part is northern side; into the North-West a tower of fortification of 1457 was integrated having belonged to the 4th enclosure.

In the stradă Azilului (street of Asylum, Spitalsgasse) draw up the church of Asylum ( Biserică Azilului , allem. Spitalskirche - N.B.: biserică=église) and the old people's home (Azilul of bătrâni), mentioned for the first time in a charter of 1292, when the church about the Holy Spirit undertook to found here the first old people's home for patients and needy of Sibiu/Hermannstadt. The current church of the Asylum, whose first mention goes back to 1292, was set up on the foundations of a Romance church, is a Gothic composite building and baroque, result of rehandlings spreading out over several centuries, until 1760, date on which it was transformed into church with single nave. It is equipped with a small bell-tower out of wooden. By a long arched passage one arrives to an interior court which a vestige of the southern section of the high wall of fortification encloses.

The high city

The high city ( Oraşul of known , allem. Oberstadt ) is since the modern time the nerve center of Sibiu, and concentrates of them the majority of the monuments and curiosities. It is articulated around its three historical places; the place Huet (litt. the very small oldest place ,), the Small Place , and the Great Place , moreover very little distant from/to each other.

• the Great Place

The Great Place ( Piaţă Pond , allem.: Großer Ring ) is, as its name indicates it, vastest of the places of the city, and is the central point since the 16th century. Measuring 142m length and 93m broad, it is remainder one of largest of all the Transylvania. Sides southern and is place are occupied by houses with two or three stages, whose roofs are bored attic windows in the almond shape with in their center of small windows, which make them resemble in eyes, from where them name of “ eyes of Sibiu ” or “ eyes of the city” ( ochii oraşului ). The majority of these houses date from 17th at the 19th century and are of style baroque. With the north-western angle of the place draws up the Palais Brukenthal , one of the monuments the most important baroques of Romania. Set up between 1777 and 1787, it was used as main home to the governor of Transylvania Samuel von Brukenthal. Currently, it lodges the major part of the funds of the Brukenthal National museum (founded in 1817), the remainder of the collections being dispersed on several other sites.

The Catholic church (known as also church of the Jesuits , because they that formerly the Jesuits of Sibiu had their districts) is drawn up, is flanked there its dependences, northern side of the place. This church baroque, to square nave, built by the Jesuits after the conquest of Transylvania by Austria, was devoted in 1733. The bell-tower in the west, completed in 1738, is in fact detached of the nave. Inside, the columns which support the spans surprise by their massive character. It was restored in the years 1971 to 1975, paintings between 1977 and 1978.

The building néo- Rococo with the western angle of the place was built in 1906 to be the seat of Grundkreditbank. It was strongly discussed in its time, because coming to intercalate itself between two other important buildings dating from the period baroque: the Catholic church and the Brukenthal palate. Since August 2006, after work of restoration which lasted five years, it acts as town hall and also shelters at the ground floor the tourist office. It presents the shape of a horseshoe, enclosing a covered interior court, and is localized so as to be next to all the three historical places at the same time.

Beside the church of the Jesuits springs the Tour of the Council ( Turnul Sfatului , allem. Ratturm or Ratsturm ). Set up at the 14th century, and mentioned for the first time in a document of 1370, this white tower is one of the most known monuments of the city, and one of its symbols. One enters there by a small door, which gives access to a spiral staircase making it possible to climb the tower to the upper floors; thus can one, with the last but one stages, to observe the clock and, on the last floor, arranged in panoramic room, to profit from a view from above on the historical center. The birth of this tower probably coincides with the construction of the second wall of enclosure, i.e. it must have place between 1224 and 1241. Undoubtedly integrated in a door of this second enclosure, and comprising in the beginning only four stages, the tower was then several times altered with the wire of the centuries. In its current form, the tower rises on seven stages, narrowing stage in stage slightly. On the southern part of the tower are embedded low-reliefs representing two lions, which one supposes that they belonged to the primitive tower of the 13th century. The tower was used various ways: it was used successively as warehouse with grains, of turn of monitoring of the fires, prison, and museum of natural science in the middle of the 18th century. Between 1962 and 1998, it sheltered the medieval department of the Brukenthal museum.

Its denomination of Turn of the Council refers to the building which is contiguous for him, in the past town hall, where had habit to meet the members of the municipal council, as a document of 1324 attests it. Its current form is the resultant of several phases of construction, at the time which it was raised and incorporated in a whole whole of buildings; original construction remains only the core to the first stage. Under the building a passage between the Great Place and the Small Place was arranged.

Among the residences patricians of the Great Place, it is advisable to quote:

All beside the Brukenthal palate is the blue Maison (allem. Blaues Stadthaus , denomination dating from the year 1819), remains baroque of the 18th century, having for particular feature to carry, painted on one of its frontages, the old armorial bearings of the town of Sibiu. The building was between the 1858 and 1862 seat of the Company of the Natural science ( Gesellschaft für Naturwissenschaften ) and of the Academy of Right ( Rechtsakademie ), and is currently used by the Brukenthal Museum, which there transported its Office of the national Cultural heritage, its workshop of restoration, its administration, its accountancy, etc the principal body of building is provided, at the ground floor, of a brickwork a sizeable thickness, knowledge 120 cm.

The House To haul ( put Haller , allem. Hallerhaus ), which in the neighborhoods of 1475 was in possession of Hyronimus Schneider, changed several times of owner, before Petrus Haller in acquired in 1537 and maintained it in its family for 354 years. This residence, of primitive Gothic style, was then transformed by its new owner to take his current aspect rebirth. The carriage door is delimited by two columns with Corinthian capital, which support an arc semicircular arch, carrying the armorial bearings Petrus Haller at its top, and overcome of a pediment with medallion. In the court the tower of dwelling is visible, which was kept original Gothic building.

The Maison Lutsch ( Put Lutsch , allem. Lutschhaus ) is today the seat of the political party Demokratisches Forum der Deutschen in Rumänien (DFDR, democratic Forum of the Germans of Romania).

• the Small Place

The Small Place ( Piaţă Mică , Kleiner Boxing ring , in German) is, as its name indicates it, of smaller size, and also of oblong form. Another characteristic announces it: the curved line (convex) of its northern face and is, - line inherited contours of the second enclosure -, it in what it is distinguished from the Great Place, whose plan is about rectangular. Moreover, its role in the current town life is, compared to the Great Place, much less. The buildings of the Small Place are not provided, with an exception, of these massive, typical porches of the Great Place or the street Balcescu ( Str. Balcescu or Heltauergasse ); what characterizes the houses of the Small Place are the galleries arched of the ground floor, opened towards the place and surmounted arcs full-clotheshanger. Under these vaults the goods manufactured by the craftsmen were formerly exposed who had in these houses their workshop. The buildings of this place, with rather high size, for certain are also equipped with these attic windows in the almond shape known under the name of “eyes of Sibiu”.

Narrow passages establish the communication between the neighbouring place and the two other places and streets. The principal access road to the place, for which comes from the low City, is the street Ocnei (allem. Burgenstraße ), which divides the place into two. Before emerging in the place, the street passes under the Pont of the Lies ( Podul Minciunilor , allem. Lügenbrücke ), the first bridge in Romania to be built out of cast iron, and which, according to the legend, should crumble at once that a liar would borrow it. The bridge was built after a group of houses had been demolished which extended almost to the Tower from the Council and after the access road suitable for motor vehicles had been bored coming from the low City (after 1851). The bridge was completed in 1859 and was inaugurated in 1860. Four metal cross-pieces bent and decorated with rivet washers constitute the elements carrying the bridge; above, kinds of cerceaux out of wrought iron hold place of tympanums. On one of these cerceaux the name of the manufacturer of the bridge is reproduced, “Fredericus Hütte”. Southern part, cerceaux the largest carries the blazon of the town of Sibiu, and northern side, the inscriptions “1859” and “Friedrichshütte”; smallest are decorated the rinceaux ones or geometrical reasons for style neogothic. The four stone pillars of the bridge, of robust construction, carry cast iron reverberators. The two metal parapets are subdivided in eight parts comprising each one a rosette. A staircase, Burgerstiege, parallel in Strada Ocnei (allem. Burgergasse ), goes down from the Bridge of the Lies towards the low city.

On the right of this bridge rises what can pass for another symbol of the city, the “ Maison of Arts ” ( Casa Artelor , allem. Haus der Künste ), building attested in a charter since 1370, pertaining to the corporation of the butchers initially, the clothiers then. It made at the 18th century office of grain warehouse, and held place during a short period in 1765 of room of theater. The principal frontage is rythmée by a regular arcade of 8 arches in full-clotheshanger, which rest on brick columns, massive and widening downwards, and which eight windows answer on the first floor (and six “eyes” in the roof). On the frontage is affixed, in the center of a round medallion, a low-relief representing the weapons of the city in date of 1787, year of a restoration; for the remainder, except the framing of the windows and the cornice, no decorative element comes to break the sobriety of this building. The ground floor is composed of 11 arched semi-cylindrical rooms, intended for the origin with the trade and accessible by the gallery. The stage is occupied by only one and bored big room of windows on her four faces.

The red house located on the left of the bridge is the “ Maison of Luxembourg ”, building of style baroque on four floors, in the past seat of the guild of the goldsmiths, now arranged in inn.

The northern side of the Small Place is dominated on the left by the house carrying number 11, named nowadays “ Casa Hermes ”, but originally Gewerbevereinsgebäude . It was set up between 1865 and 1867 as sits administrative of the Gewerbeverein (which one could translate by chamber of commerce and of industry), and the museum of ethnology Franz Binder lodges now, which open in 1990 and was belonged to the unit muséal ASTRA.

• the Place Huet

The place is on the site of the first strengthened enclosure of Sibiu/Hermannstadt. The place strictly speaking goes back to the end of the 12th century, the existence of one prévôté in the year 1191 representative indeed a benchmark handle quem for the dating of the perimeter of the current place. The buildings could be built on the line of the first enclosure since these works of fortification had been private of their practical utility, i.e. at the beginning of second half of the 14th century, after the wall had been completed including the high town suit (third enclosure). The buildings located at the neighborhoods of the evangelic cathedral, among which good number are important cultural witnesses, were built between 15th and the 18th century. Most important are the parochial house, Sagturm and the Brukenthal college.

The place however is dominated by the evangelic cathedral (allem. Evangelische Stadtpfarrkirche ), built at the 14th century instead of a former Romance church. It is composed of a polygonal chorus with three spans, flanked in north by a sacristy; he make continuation, towards the west, a transept then a central nave and two side aisles; more in the west still the solid mass bell-tower, enclosed in a narthex springs, which is also composed of three naves. The oldest part of the building is the chorus, mentioned in a document of 1371.
In the beginning, the church was a Gothic basilica with transept and sacristy, of which the side aisles were only half as high as the central nave. At the time of a second phase of construction in 1424, the central nave was raised and the widened side aisles. In 1448, one proceeded to an enlarging west coast, by the addition of a narthex, known under the name of ferula . In the year 1474 and following, one suddenly undertook to deeply alter the southern side of the church, after it had been decided to transform the church into a church-market ( Hallenkirche ), i.e. to make so that the central nave and the side aisles are of the same height. Only the southern walls external however were raised, which made the church asymmetrical and gave southern part place to the creation of a gallery running of the narthex to the transept.
The bell-tower was completed in 1494. Rising on 7 stages and reaching a 73,34 m height, it is the highest tower of Transylvania, and when one arrives at Sibiu, of some direction which one comes, it is always his silhouette which one sees in first. It is equipped moreover with four pinnacles of angle, which is the sign which the city enjoyed the right of high justice.
The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of the evangelic national church A.C. of Roumanie.
The church in addition contains a great wealth of movable objects and works of art: furnace bridges, organ of Sauer, paintings (including one large fresco of Johannes von Rosenau), baptismal font, wood etc statues

On the east coast of the place draws up the parochial house ( put parohiale , allem. Pfarrhaus , litt. “presbytery”), equipped with a remarkable Gothic stone gate of style of Andreas Lapicida, including/understanding in its upper part a rectangular table which carries its escutcheon (a lion drawn up on its legs of behind outgoing of a crown and holding a cross) and, in the four angles, effigies of the guardian saint, Jean Baptiste, the Frederic emperor and the pope Alexandre VI Borgia. In the upper part of the table a Latin inscription, framed of a moulding appears which announces the Renaissance. The arched cellar of the presbytery dates from the beginning of the 15th century.

West coast of the place is the college Brukenthal , on the site of an old school of the 15th century.

• Elsewhere in the high city

The old town hall ( primăria veche , allem. altes Rathaus , also called Altemberger house), started at the end of the XVe century, is the greatest Gothic whole of Romania. The private mansion built by the Bourgmestre (mayor) Thomas Altemberger constitutes the initial core of it; the building under its current form was produced in several successive stages, the part side street dating from the XVIIIe century, and the western face of the court dating from the neighborhoods of 1500; the oldest part is the tower of dwelling on four levels, which goes up with 1470. Transformed into Town hall in 1549, the building was used like such until in 1948, and shelters the museum of History today ( Muzeul de Istorie , v. below).

The reformed community, having obtained in 1783 the authorization to build a clean place of worship, thus undertook to build its reformed church ( biserică reformată ), according to the plans of the architect Samuel Krempels. Inaugurated in 1786, the church, of rather sober aspect, presents a narrow frontage which is announced initially by a simple gate to stone framing, then by four pilasters supporting an entablature made up of a Architrave, of a plank with Triglyphes and métopes, and of a cornice to dentils. Above the pediment finally draws up a slender surmounted bell-tower of an arrow. Interior, of invoice also extremely sober - sobriety imposed by the precepts of the religion offers the image of a church-market with apse, glaze of a semicylindric vault. The walls are only decorated with doubled pilasters supporting an entablature identical to that of outside.

Built in 1474 near the door of salt ( Poartă Sarii , allem. Salztor , carries second enclosure), the church of the Ursulines belonged to a Dominican convent until 1543, year when it passed to the hands Lutherans, the major part of the population saxonne of Transylvania, following the Réforme, having then indeed adopted the Protestant religion. The outside of the church presents many Gothic elements, in particular the principal gate (niche with the polychrome effigy of holy Ursule), the windows and the columns. The interior, Gothic in the beginning, were transformed into interior baroque after the resumption of the building by nuns Ursulines, arrivals there of Bratislava in 1733. These same nuns founded also a school of girls and set up close to the church a convent with frontage baroque, become the teaching College Andrei Saguna. The church was nationalized in 1948, but since 1992 the offices of the church Rumanian gréco-catholic are celebrated there.

Monumental the orthodoxe cathedral could be born thanks to the funds collected since 1858 by that which conceived of it the idea, Andrei Şaguna, bishop and - as from 1864 - metropolitan archbishop of the Rumanian orthodoxe church of Transylvania. The Austrian emperor François-Joseph Ier itself and the governor of the Transylvania were the first givers. Built between 1902-1906 on the site of a modest older church, which had to be demolished, at the same time as some houses which were on the pieces acquired for this purpose, the building presents a centered plan, with a set of volumes being organized around the central space of the nave covered of a cupola on pendentive (this last term being to hear like: districts of vault supporting a cupola). The nave is flanked hemispherical volumes and of four turns - two small, of octagonal cut, with the back, and two larger, framing the gate of entry, of square cut at the base, but becoming octagonal with height of the bells, and crowned of two bulbs superimposed and separated by a skylight. The entry consists of three arcades full-clotheshanger with capitals. Behind and above these arcades draws up, between the two large towers, a pediment in half-circle, bored of an of the same window forms, and decorated with circular medallions in mosaic representing the Christ and the four evangelists.
The materials chosen for outside - bricks in a hurry bichromes for the facing, and coppers for the roofs - also contribute to determine the architectural expression:. With the architectural elements of the building echo the pillars of the grids of entrée.
make The interior joined the Byzantine tradition and strikes the visitor by the extent of the nave. The pendentive ones, painted with the effigy of the four evangelists, painting on the under-surface of the cupola representing the Christ Pantocrator surrounded by angels, like part of the panels, carved in wood and gilded, of the iconostase are hand of Octavian Smighelschi (1866-1922, born in Ludus) and of Artur Coulin (1869-1912), trained painter with Sibiu.

Elsewhere in the city

The Vault Holy-Cross ( Capela Sfinţei Cruci , located in the district of the station) and its Crucifix has a remarkable history. With the site of this vault was formerly a Dominican convent first half of XIIIe century. The history of the crucifix starts in 1417, when the Austrian artist Peter Lantregen carves, in the same block of stone, the monumental martyrdom representing Jesus on the cross between Marie and the Jean apostle. The cross, high, 7,30 meters was probably above the furnace bridge of the church of the Dominican ones. The head office of Sibiu/Hermannstadt by the Hungarian at the XVIIe century pushed the municipality of Sibiu to demolish the church, in order to leave at besieging the no possible fulcrum, church being indeed located in the vicinity, and outwards, of the walls of defense of the city. In parallel, the Dominican ones built inside the walls a new monastery with church, the current church of the Ursulines. The crucifix remained buried under the debris and rubble during 24 years. As from 1683, after, on order of the municipality, one had cleared rubble and had released the monolithic crucifix, was built around the crucifix, during the two following centuries, the vault such as it appears today.

Biserică “DIN Groapă”

Biserică Dintre Brazi

( section in construction )

Fortifications

Sibiu was one of the strong cities most important of the south-east of Europe. With the wire of the centuries, several defensive enclosures were successively built around the city, mainly out of clay bricks. One distinguishes four from them:

The first enclosure , high between 1191 and 1224, which included the low city and extended until current the Place Huet , with the edge of the high city; The second enclosure , high between 1224 and 1241, which enclosed part of the high city, of which current Petite Place;

The third enclosure , high between 1357 and 1366, which embraced the very whole high city, and whose site corresponded to the layout of the following current ways: the data base Coposu (in south-east), the streets Manejului and Movilei (in the North-East), the streets Al Odobescu and Centumvirilor (in the North-West), the street Ioan Lupas and place it Unirii (in south-west).

The fourth enclosure finally, high in 1457, which included the low city, and followed, of is in west, the layout of the current streets Funarilor , Blanarilor , Rotarilor , Pielarilor , Zidului , Pulberariei , Croitorilor , Pânzarilor ; it made in the west, in the zone of the street Bastionului , the junction with the walls of the third enclosure.

(To be directed, one will be able to refer to the one of the plans of city available on the Fabric, p.ex. the virtual plan put on line by the town hall of Sibiu: http://www.sibiu2007.ro/ro3/harta.php)

• 1st enclosure

The Turn of the Staircase ( Turnul Scarilor , allem. Treppenturm or Sagturm ), located Huet Place, is the only one to remain of the three doors which the first wall of enclosure counted. Dating from the 13th century, this masonry, a massive brick construction of only one stage, is the oldest building of Sibiu, even if in its current form it goes back to the year 1542. A passage arched under the building makes it possible to join the staircases which connect the low city to the high city. Until the nineteenth century, it is by a escarpée lane ( Pasajul Scarilor , allem. Sagstiege or Pemflingerstiege ) which skirted the walls of the first enclosure that one reached the low city. Of this enclosure, there remains here a wall end of 30 meters, built at the 13th century.

• 2nd enclosure

On the Piaţa Aurarilor (litt. place Goldsmiths, allem. Fingerlingsplatz , in the east of the Small Place), close to the house n° 11, can be observed a wall portion of the second enclosure. In the court of the house n° 4, one can see the wall outlining a curve which prolongs the curved shape of the face is Small Place (Piaţa Mica). In the court being next to the house with the n° 5 a tower of square defense on three levels is, integrated into a dwelling house.

• 3rd enclosure

Third enclosure were preserved many vestiges. It is the south-eastern section which is best preserved. The three parallel lines of triple enclosure are still discernible there, knowledge:

- initially, along Str. Cetatii (litt. street of the Fortifications, allem. Harteneckgasse , street parallel with the data base Coposu), an alignment of 3 turns extremely well preserved (the Turn of Arquebusiers , Turnul Archebuzierilor , allem. Armbrusterturm ; the Turn of the Carpenters , Turnul Dulgherilor , allem. Zimmermannsturm ; the Turn of the Potters , Turnul Olarilor , allem. Töpferturm , dating all three from the 15th century); the curtains, a 10 meters height, which connect these turns between them, are in fact only rebuildings of the old walls;
- then, along the boulevard Coposu, a 10 meters high wall also out of red brick, which offers the most impressive glance incontestably. In the southern section of this wall, towards Piaţa Unirii (Hermannplatz), is a marble commemorative plaque pointing out the visit of the emperor François Ier in 1828;
- finally a ground rampart, between the roadway of the current boulevard and the wall. It is aujour' today an green area with trees, called Promenade , arranged in 1791.

Starting from the bastion To haul, added to the enclosure at the 16th century, at the north-eastern end of the Coposu boulevard (see below), the third enclosure moves towards north; of this northern part remain of the wall portions along the Str. Manejului (R. of the Horse-gear, allem. Reitschulgasse ) to the church of the Ursulines. These walls, which are composed of a series of arches supporting the covered way formerly, and which are doubled of a second parallel wall, were built between 1357 and 1366. This wall section in fact was reconstituted in its form of origin in 1976, and only a wall side 50 meters length approximately was maintained such as it appeared before this date. More in north still, the Str. Movilei , street parallel in Str. Avram Iancu (allem. Reispergasse ), preserves some vestiges of the walls of defense which doubled the third enclosure. With the crossing of the passage Scarilor (Pemflingerstiege) and street Odobescu, near the old town hall, draws up quadrangular the Tour of the Door ( Turnul Portii , Torturm , 14th century), one of the elements best preserved third enclosure. Lastly, other wall sections of this same enclosure were preserved close to the Strada Bastionului , i.e. in the extreme west of the old city (they are observed best since the Aleea Filozofilor ).

• 4th enclosure

In the low city, any visible trace of the oldest walls disappeared; the only vestiges of fortifications to remain there are the Tour with Powder and the Tour of the Tanners , but those date from the 15th century and belong to the fourth enclosure. Massive and round the Turn with Powder ( Turnul Pulberariei , allem. Pulverturm or Schiesspulverturm ), with the n° 33 of Str. Ocnei ( Burgergasse ), was built at the end of the 15th century to the site of a gunpowder warehouse, and formed integral part of a complex of buildings intended to defend the door of Ocna near ( Poarta Ocnei , Burgertor ). The Turn of the Tanners ( Turnul Pielarilor , allem. Gerberturm ), located Str. Pulberariei (Pulvergasse), was set up in 1457 on an octagonal level, whose sides measure approximately 3 meters. Widening with the last of its four stages, it is equipped on this level with three machicolations per side. Its guard was entrusted to the corporation of the tanners. During centuries, it was damaged with many recoveries by fires and explosions, and in 1638 by the lightning, but each rebuilt time.

• turns and bastions of the 16th century

With the 16th century, modern works of fortification were associated with the old medieval enclosures; these are in particular the bastions, of which one remained until our days, the Bastion To haul , located at the end of the boulevard Corneliu Coposu. This work in the iron shape of spade, had an overall length of 223 meters and whose walls reached a 9 meters height, was built in 1552 at the instigation of the Austrian general Castaldo, whereas Peter Haller was mayor of Sibiu. The Large Tower ( Turnul Large , allem. Dicker Turm ), of semicircular form and exceeding in height the wall external of approximately 25 meters, was set up in 1540 against the wall is third enclosure. Its multiple defensive levels made a genuine machine of war of it. This work sheltered in 1778 the first theater of Sibiu. It has just been entirely renovated and found its theatrical destination. The Bastion of the Mercenaries ( Bastionul mercenarilor , allem. Soldischbastei ), built between 1622 and 1627 for the defense of the high city, - is the latest to date of the urban bastions. It presents, in its upper part, a projection making it possible to more easily fight the scales of attack; from there, one overhangs part of the low city. With the foot of the bastion two doors are giving access to the underground. On the wall of the bastion is affixed a bearing marble plate what is undoubtedly the most beautiful execution of the armorial bearings of the city. In the vicinity drew up the Tower of the Goldsmiths, until his demolition in 1881.

Museums

History

In Sibiu was based, on February 25th, 1817, the first museum on the current territory of Romania, the Musée Brukenthal . A second museum was open in 1895: the Museum of the Transylvanian Company of the Natural science , become Museum of the Natural science, on the site of the strada Cetatii, close to the walls of the second enclosure. To the beginning of the year 1950, the funds of the Museum Astra and that of the Saxon Musée of Ethnography were transferred towards the Brukenthal Museum. In 1967 the permanent exposure of Weapons and Hunting trophies was opened to the public, then, in 1972, in a historical building on the Small Place, the Musée of History of Pharmacy .

In 1988 was inaugurated, in the old town hall, the Musée of History , which inherited the essence of the numismatic collection and the collection of Roman antiquities of Samuel von Brukenthal, as of the collection of weapons of Societatii Carpatine Transilvanene and the collection of history of Museum ASTRA.

In 1990, the popular section of art and ethnography is detached from the whole of the Brukenthal Museum to form a museum with share and permanent, Museum ASTRA. After 1990 was made up the National museum Brukenthal , vast muséal unit including/understanding, in addition to the Brukenthal Museum installed in the palate of the same name (art gallery and library), the Museum of History Put Altemberger (established in the old town hall), the Museum of Natural history, the Museum of History of Pharmacy, and the Museum of Hunting August von Spiess.

Outline

Here a diagrammatic outline of the museums of Sibiu:

• the National museum Brukenthal , which is composed of the following elements:

- the art gallery and the bibliothèque
- the Museum of History,
- the Museum of Natural history,
- the Museum of Pharmacy,
- the Museum of Hunting

• the Complex muséal national ASTRA , which is composed of the following elements:

- the Museum of popular Civilization traditionnelle
- the Museum of universal Ethnography “Franz Binder”
- the Museum of the Popular culture saxonne “Emil Sigerus”

• the Museum of the Engines with vapor

These institutions are described with some detail hereafter.

Brukenthal national museum

• ART GALLERY and LIBRARY BRUKENTHAL

The initial collections of the baron von Brukenthal, which are the art gallery, the cabinet of the prints, the library and the numismatic collection, essentially transfer the day between 1759 and 1774, i.e. for the period when he lived mainly with Vienna.
When it returned in Sibiu in the capacity as Governor of the Great Principality of Transylvania (1777-1787), the baron carried with him his collections, so that the calendar of Hochmeister (editor and bookseller with Sibiu) for the year 1790 could, by quoting the attractions of the city, to make state of the art gallery of the baron, which included/understood 800 tables and was laid out in 13 rooms of the Brukenthal palate. With the wire of time, the collections grew rich, at the same time by new acquisitions and gifts. The objects of the national Art gallery are exposed on the first and second floors of the Brukenthal palate. The palate in addition shelters the Cabinet of Prints and the Brukenthal Library, which has at the present time some 300.000 units (foreign manuscripts, incunables, rare books, old Rumanian books, Transylvanian literature, current books and specialized magazines).

the national Art gallery
The collection of European painting includes/understands approximately 1200 works representative of the principal European schools of painting of XVe at the XVIIIe century: Flemish and Dutch (with tables of Marinus van Reymerswaele, Frans Flowered of Vriendt, Rubens, Anton van Dyck, Frans Snyders, Jan Fyt, Hendrik for the third time Brugghen, Adriaen van der Venne, Jan Gerritsz van Bronkhorst), allemande and Austrian (Lucas Cranach the Old one, Schwab von Wertinger, Christoph Pauditz, Anton Faistenberger, Hans von Aachen, Peter Strudel, Frans C. Sambach, Johann H. Schönfeld, Georg Hinz, Franz W. Tamm, Maximilian Pfeiler), Italian (Alessandro Botticelli, Tullio Lombardo, Tiziano Vecellio, Paris Bordone, Sebastiano Ricci, Alessandro Magnasco), Spanish and French. The currently exposed objects to some extent make it possible to the visitor to embrace glance and to compare between them all the principal currents and styles since the Renaissance until the Rococo.

the Cabinet of prints
The funds initial consisted of European engravings of XVIe at the XVIIIe century. The baron Samuel von Brukenthal started to collect prints at the time of his stay in Vienna, the first documents attesting of the acquisition of prints dating indeed from the period of 1775 to 1786. The interest of the collector initially went worms of the engravings produced according to models of large Masters of the Renaissance and Baroque, enabling him to supplement its collection of European painting. The funds of the cabinet of prints includes/understands nearly 1000 engravings of the schools German, Austrian, Flemish, Dutch, Italian, French, English and Swiss. In addition, 2000 other boards, contained in albums, illustrated famous collections of XVIIIe, Paris, Vienna, Dresden, Rome, Düsseldorf and London. Among the important names represented in the Brukenthal collection, one finds Albrecht Dürer, Jan Saenredam, Jacques Callot, Giambattista Piranesi, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, etc.
It is advisable to also mention the collection of Transylvanian graphics, which joins together more than 3000 drawings, watercolours and engravings, and constitutes an important documentary source on Transylvania of XVIIIe and XIXe century. Lastly, from works of Rumanian artists (Theodor Aman, Stefan Luchian, Theodor Pallady, Gheorghe Petrascu, Nicolae Tonitza), acquired in 2nd half of the XXe century, came to supplement the collection.

the Library Brukenthal
To the collection of pounds joined together by the baron Brukenthal (15.972 volumes) were added, with the passing of years, other collections, among which: the library of the Vault, built-in 1879, whose foundation goes back to XIVe century, and who includes/understands the library of the convent of Dominican like that of some patricians of Sibiu. These regroupings made it possible to change the number of the incunables from 76 to 356. Later still, the library also absorbed the funds of books of the chapter evangelic, the Academy of right, as well as a series of gifts on behalf of private individuals and scientific institutions of Romania or others pays.
The full number of volumes reaches approximately 280.000, of which 442 are incunables, grouped in 382 volumes.
The library includes/understands approximately 30.000 rare books of the XVIe centuries with XVIIIe, among which a great number of books illustrated of engravings of great value, and produced by printing works more for Europe or pertaining to the largest editors of their époque.
For the XVIIIe century, the collector expresses a predilection for the books illustrated, generally low-size, more particularly those of editors and French engravers. It is necessary to also quote 1500 pounds Rumanian rare and a rich person collection of Transylvanian books (named collection Transilvanica ). Among the manuscripts, mention in particular celebrates it Bréviaire Brukenthal deserves (acquired in 1786 in Vienna), creates with the Netherlands at the beginning of XVIe century, on parchment, in small letters Gothics, illustrated miniatures allotted to Simon Bening (1483 - 1561) and Geeraert Hornebaut (1465 - 1540).

• MUSEUM Of HISTORY

Installed in the old town hall ( Primaria veche , Altes Rathaus , also said House Altemberger ), the Museum of History opened its doors in 1984 and is composed of the following sections: Prehistoric archeology and antique ; Medieval archeology ; Seals and Estampes ; Carl Engber Collector and Bibliophile ; History of Sibiu ; Medals and Décorations ; Corporations of Sibiu ; numismatic Cabinet ; Weapons and Armures ; National movements and cultural of Transylvania ; and ancient and medieval Precious stones . Are thus exposed: 60.000 ancient and medieval currencies; 39000 coins of archeology, to which 82000 fragments are added coming from archaeological excavations; 14.000 decorative coins and objects of craft industry; 1900 weapons; 33000 documentary graphic coins.

• MUSEUM Of Natural history

The bases of this museum were thrown in 1849, when was founded the Transylvanian Société of Natural science (“Siebenbürgischer Verein für Naturwissenschaften zu Hermannstadt”). The first collections were an herbarium of the 18th century, 1811 parts, and another herbarium, made up between 1834 and 1882, of approximately 29000 parts. Were added an ornithological collection of 1853 to it including/understanding 528 indigenous birds and 145 exotic birds, then the ethnographic collection of Franz Binder (which was however detached from it in 1993, to be integrated into museum ASTRA) and a collection minéralogique.
All these collections could finally be lodged and exposed when was inaugurated and opened with the public, in 1895, the building Néo-classique on Strada Cetatii, especially built for this purpose.
The funds of the museum comprises nearly a million parts. It is: 168.000 parts of Botanical, 22.500 of Zoology, 12.000 of Mineralogy, 7.000 of Petrography, 266.000 of Entomology, 510.000 of Malacology (study of molluscs), 57.000 of Paleontology, and 5.000 of Ornithology.

• MUSEUM Of HISTORY OF PHARMACY

The funds of this open museum in 1972 joins together nearly 6.600 parts of XVIe at the XIXe centuries. Those come from 67 different sources, in particular of pharmacies, pharmaceutical laboratories, medical institutions and private individuals, located in 32 localities different from the pays.
This collection was lodged in a building located on the Small Place, going back to 1568, which was classified historic building and whose architecture comprises Gothic elements and rebirth.
The museum is composed of three rooms - the dispensary, the laboratory and a room of traditional exposition to the Homéopathie - and contains 2900 objects: containers out of wooden, porcelain and glass; cast iron or bronze mortars; frame of balance of style Viennese with weights used in pharmacy; medical and surgical instruments; microscopes; lancets; and also old publications.
The dispensary, initially, traditional element of any pharmacy, intended to present to the customers the medicinal products, points out, by its decoration, typical pharmacies of formerly. Furniture also is old of more than one century, indeed having been ordered and having been carried out in Vienna in 1902, especially for this pharmacy. Among the instruments exposed in this first part (small distorsion with reality, because no instrument was normally in the dispensary) more particularly retains the attention a mortar of bronze of 1597, the oldest object of the collection.
By a narrow corridor one gains the second room, where are shown medical and surgical instruments, scissors and microscopes, balances of various types, distillers, containers metal and of ceramics, crushing machines and to work the raw material, filters, glassmaking of laboratory, etc, objects reflecting the evolution of the designs médicales.
The third and last room are devoted to homeopathy. This one enjoyed in Sibiu a great popularity; it is indeed the founder himself of this medical practice, Samuel Hahnemann, which made promotion here of it; he was the first librarian of the baron Samuel von Brukenthal and exerted in this city during nearly one year. The homeopathic collection gathers nearly 2900 objects, but the third room makes it possible to also see documentary material, p.ex. the first edition of the Rumanian pharmacopeia, published with Bucharest in 1862, an old treaty of botany published in Sibiu in 1866, etc

• MUSEUM OF HUNTING “AUGUST VON SPIESS”

The Museum of Hunting “August von Spiess” was opened with the public in 1966. In 1981, after restoration and reorganization, it was moved towards an vain villa, of Rumanian style, which had belonged to the colonel-hunter Von Spiess, authority out of matter hunting, which took up during long years the duty of large huntsman of the royal House. The colonel, whose name is quoted in international annals of hunting, was a famous hunter and on the occasion to take part in a long safari in Africa, from where it brought back a certain number of parts of high value, which form part today of the collection of this museum. At the present time, the funds of the museum counts 1.577 objects (of which some have nearly 100 years), and comes in major part of three important collections: the collection August von Spiess , the collection Emil Witting and the collection of the Transylvanian Company of Natural science of Sibiu .
The museum includes/understands four rooms. The first offers a historic insight of the instruments and hunting weapons, second is devoted to game birds, the third with big game, the fourth finally accommodates hunting trophies coming from Africa.

Complex muséal national ASTRA

The starting point of this museum is the foundation with Sibiu, in 1861, of “Transylvanian Association for the Rumanian literature and the culture of the Rumanian people” ( Asociaţiunea Transilvană pentru Literatură Română şi Cultura Poporului Român , denomination which are at the origin of acronym ASTRA). This association, in 1867 having called with the creation of a “Museum of great scale”, decides, at the time of its general meeting in 1897 in Mediaş, to take action necessary for the construction of a building in order to lodge the future Museum of the ASTRA; it will be the “Museum of Association” ( Muzeul Asociaţiunii ), neo-classic building located in current Parc ASTRA, inaugurated in 1905 by a great “ethnografic and historico-cultural” exposure. In 1950 however, for “ideological” reasons, the museum was closed and its collections distributed on the departments of history, art and natural science of the Brukenthal Museum.

In 1963 is inaugurated, in Padurea Dumbrava, 4 km in the south-west of Sibiu, a museum of outdoor, the “Museum of the popular Techniques”, according to the concepts and the topics worked out for museum ASTRA by Cornel Diaconovici in 1905, and according to the project suggested by the ethnologist Romulus Vuia in 1940. In 1990, the Minister for the culture gives his approval so that the “Museum of the popular Techniques” is separated from the “Complex Muséal de Sibiu” and is constituted in a new entity muséale, the “Museum of the popular Civilization of Romania”. In 1992 a change of denomination intervenes, the museum naming from now on “Museum of popular Civilization traditional ASTRA” ( Muzeul Civilizaţiei Populare Tradiţionale ASTRA Sibiu ).

This écomusée has a surface of 96 ha and is articulated on a circuit of visit an overall length of 10 km. The Museum shelters testimonys and original monuments representative of the activities and system of values of the Rumanian village. Y were gathered: reconstituted dwelling houses coming from various parts of the countries, interior of house preserved in their country of origin, tools and installations of industry and the craft industry peasants, means of transport jointly traditional, etc Through particular sites and of buildings (firm, workshops, etc), all the spheres of activity are illustrated: agriculture, breeding, Bee-keeping, fishing and drive out, etc the funds of the museum includes/understands 340 original buildings and 19.000 objects, and is subdivided in five great sets of themes fields. The first field relates to the operations and processes of treatment of livestock and vegetable products for the food production. Of this set of themes field raise: fishing (fisheries of Mahmudia-Tulcea), the Bee-keeping (breeding of bees and beeswax extraction in a “farm of bees” coming from Sebesul de Jos), the breeding of bovines and sheep, the Vine growing and fruiticulture, and finally the pressing of the oils and the moulding, illustrated by a group of mills (with arms, floating, with wind, animal haulage, etc).

The area of the technologies of transport and the means of communication is represented by two objects: the bridge floating of the river Olt (in Turnu Roşu, in the procession of the Carpates) and the “winged vat” coming from Topalu- Constanţa.

The third field recovers the treatments of raw materials for obtaining construction materials and ustensils. One finds thus there workshops for the work of wood and of metals and the workshops of pottery, the sawmills, the workshops of joinery, a lime kiln, forging mills, workshops of cartwright trade, etc a smaller zone is devoted to the country means of transport.

The fourth field milked with the processes and processes used in skin dressing and those used to obtain textile fibers of animal or vegetable origin for the clothing and the manufacture of objects of everyday usage. In form part e.a. a farm of Saliste (Sibiu), a mill with pit of Tannage of Fanete-Bihor, of the rural workshops of manufacture of Gura Raului, Rucar- Braşov and Polovragi-Gorj.

The fifth field finally, of more recent date, is devoted to the buildings of public access, like p.ex. the inn “Hanul Rustic” (inn rustic), built in 1922 and coming from the canton of Harghita, where it was in activity until 1958, or the inn “Cârciumă DIN Bătrâni” (inn of the old time) of Prahova. These two inns make office in addition bar-restaurant in the museum. Same complex muséal form part the Museum of universal Ethnography Franz Binder and the Museum of the Popular culture saxonne Emil Sigerus.

• MUSEUM Of UNIVERSAL ETHNOGRAPHY “FRANZ BINDER”

Inaugurated in 1993, the museum “Franz Binder” is the first and also the single museum of non-European Ethnographie of Romania. The museum was arranged in a building located on the Small Place, built in style Néogothique between 1865-1867, classified historic building, known today under the name of Casa Hermes, which in the beginning was used as administrative seat of Gewerbeverein, but had then various destinations. The collection of the museum of universal Ethnography “Franz Binder” was constituted at the XIXe century by a series of gifts and acquisitions coming travellers or ethnological collectors from objects, the first of which the traveller and exploring Franz Binder (1824-1875). The majority of these people were members of the Transylvanian Association of the Natural science (allem. Siebenbürgischer Verein für Naturwissenschaften ), which was active in second half of the XIXe century and in the permière left XXe. A crowd of objects coming from all the parts of the world - of, source North Africa of the the Nile, China, the Japan, Oceania, minor Asia, the Brazil, Lapland, Australia etc - thus came to feed the “exotic collections” of the Museum of Natural history, collections which composed the funds of a particular room remained open in the building of the museum until 1957. As from 1993, the most important parts of these old exotic collections reappeared in a permanent exposure - “Culture and art of the people of the world” - museum “Franz Binder” lately created; it is, in particular, the Egyptian mummy whose had made gift in 1907 the consul Hermann von Hannenheim, and a series of nilotic weapons of the collection of Franz Binder. The funds continued to grow rich after 1990 by gifts like by a policy by acquisition and exchanges. Were born as follows: the collection “Zaire”; a special collection of objects of non-European source which were originally presidential gifts; a collection of Japanese traditional toys obtained thanks to an exchange with the museum of the toys of Hyogo; a collection of popular costumes of the ethnic minorities of China, gift of the embassy of China of Bucharest; an Ecuadorian collection; donations of objects of Indonesia, a first going back to 2000, a second of 2003, made by the Embassy of Indonesia, etc The funds of the museum “Franz Binder”, which adds up some 3000 objects, thus breaks up into two parts: one, corresponding to the “old hand” collections, undoubtedly most interesting, including/understanding parts originating in various parts of the world (mainly of the continent African) and collected on the ground even by collectors of the area, then yielded to the museum of the Natural science in second half of the XIXe century; the other, corresponding to the “new” collections, integrated in the inheritance of the museum after 1990.

• MUSEUM OF POPULAR CULTURE SAXONNE “EMIL SIGERUS”

This museum, founded in 1997 and lodged in the House of Arts (Artilor Put) on the Small Place, came to fill a gap in Rumanian museology; up to that point indeed, the contributions brought by the Saxon ones, during the few 8 centuries of their establishment to Transylvania, at the formation and the enrichment of the Rumanian culture had been put little in valeur.
The funds of this museum, which borders the 7000 objects, joins together the collection Emil Sigerus, recovered inheritance of old the Musée carpatic (founded in 1885), and a series of other collections of high value having belonged to particuliers.
A permanent exposure, having for topic “ Transylvanian Civilization. The craft industry of the earthenware squares (of 15th at the 19th century) ”, makes it possible the museum to develop this particular core, of high documentary interest, its funds. By the means of the earthenware squares indeed, which have constituted for a few decades an important subject of investigation for the medievists, it is possible to refine our perception in the way in which the Roumanians and other nationalities living on the territory of Romania (German, Hungarian and Sicules) lived together and influenced themselves reciprocally.

Museum of the Engines with vapor

The reject, in the years 1960, of the old engines with vapor of the narrow-gauge line Sighişoara - Sibiu, garaged in a deposit with Sibiu, was the starter of the collection of this museum. As from 1991, in particular thanks to the action of some impassioned railwaymen of the area of Braşov, other engines, to narrow or standard spacing, came to be added to this first groupe.
The Museum of the Engines with vapor , located in a deposit close to the station, was inaugurated in 1994, at the time of the centenary of the Sibiu-Cisnădie line. The funds includes/understands today 35 engines with vapor, 2 cranes with vapor and 2 snow-plows with vapor, manufactured between 1885 and 1958. Seven among these engines are always ready to function and used on various occasions. The oldest part is a Wiener Neustadt of 1885; the other engines were built in Rumanian workshops or come from other countries, like Germany ( Borsig , Schwartzkopff , and Henschel - one of the engines resulting from this last firm going back to 1894) or the United States ( Baldwin ).

Written press

In Rumanian language

The local daily the most important, but undoubtedly also one the most appreciated of at the national level in Romania, is Tribuna Sibiului , founded political newspaper in 1884, under the title of Tribuna , by the writer and journalist Ioan Slavici. The newspaper played a big role in the political life and cultural of Transylvania, working, through the culture, for the political unit of the Roumanians; it fought excessive Latinizations and supported popular realism, publishing many texts in folk matter and literary works inspired of the life in rural area. It was a long time the newspaper more read of Transylvania. Though it had to suffer from many periods of interruption, each time however the daily newspaper appeared again, under other names, and appears still today. Y collaborated of many personalities known in Romania such as George Coşbuc (poet), Pop-Reteganul Ion (pedagog, prosator, journalist and folklorist), Octavian Goga (poet and politician), Ion Popovici-Bănăţeanu (short story writer), etc
In February 1968, a made up group devoted journalists and young initial authors founded the title Tribuna Sibiului , which reached between 1968 and 1989 its stronger pullings. Currently, the daily newspaper offers, on 24 pages, from Monday to Saturday, of various information, so much local (city and judeţ of Sibiu) that main roads and international.

Telegraful Român , appearing since 1853, is the oldest newspaper of this part of Europe. In addition to the titles mentioned, the written press with Sibiu still includes/understands a mosaic of daily newspapers and weekly magazines; we will quote:

- Monitorul de Sibiu , Sibianul , Ziarul de Sibiu .
- Cultural reviews Revista Transilvania (of which the first publication goes back to 1868) and Euphorion .
- The review Sibiu Business , which wants to be the reflection of the economic life of the department (judeţ) of Sibiu, and is addressed to the actors économiques.
- Lastly, the town hall of Sibiu publishes its advertisements and makes known the decisions of the municipal council through a publication with the very suitable title: Primăria Sibiu .

In German language

The weekly magazine Hermannstädter Zeitung was founded, under its current name, in 1968. Shortly after its foundation, when, under the mode of Ceauşescu, the use of the German toponyms was prohibited, the name of the publication was changed into Die Woche (the week). Until 1989, i.e. until the revolution, the newspaper was, in fact, the speaking pipe of the Rumanian government. Today, the review is not read any more only by the Germans of Sibiu, but also, in an increasing measurement, by foreigners whom Romania interests, because the review is the single means of informing itself on the situation of the population saxonne. At the present time, 41 percent of the pulling (which increased by 1700 in 1995 to 2100 in 2007) are abroad past. The newspaper also endeavors to attract the public young people. Thus, the heading " Juniorecke" (corner junior) was created for the 9 to 14 years, in order to consolidate their German knowledge. For one period, a supplement being addressed to the teenagers from 15 to 18 years, heading " HaZett" , was assistant of the review, but, the strong initial interest expressed by the not being confirmed assistantship then, the supplement was removed.

In Hungarian language

In Hungarian language the weekly magazine Szebeni Ujsag appears.

Educational establishments

Superior

Sibiu is an important center of higher education, cash, in 2007, more than 28.000 students, attending a total of 38 faculties. Approximately 12% of the population of the city are titular of a diploma of higher education. The University Lucian Blaga de Sibiu , founded in 1990, included/understood in the beginning five faculties: Sciences and polytechnic; Letters; Right and history; Medicine; Technology of the food and the textile. Since, the range of faculties widened including:

• the Faculty of theology Andrei Şaguna
• the Faculty of arts and letters
• Faculty Nicolae Lupu of history and patrimonial studies
• Faculty Simion Bărnuţiu of right
• Faculty Hermann Oberth of engineering
• the Faculty of Science
• Faculty Victor Papilian of medicine
• the Faculty of the economic scenes
• the Faculty of journalism
• the Faculty of agronomy, of food industry and environmental protection
• the Faculty of remote teaching and training in line

Are also established in Sibiu the Military academy Nicolae Bălcescu, the Faculty of evangelic theology, as well as a certain number of private universities.

Secondary

Sibiu counts 20 institutions of secondary education, of which here most important:

• the national College Gheorghe Lazăr (mainly sciences and data processing, with some bilingual classes)
• the national College Samuel von Brukenthal (where teaching is exempted in German language)
• the national College Octavian Goga (social sciences, sciences and data processing)
• the theoretical College Onisifor Ghibu (data-processing, social sciences and sports)
• the teaching College Andrei Şaguna (training of the teachers, data processing, social sciences and sports)
• the theoretical College Constantin Noica (social sciences and sciences)
• agricultural College D.P. Barcianu
• the economic College George Baritiu
• the technical School of industries food Terezianum
• the College of arts
• the theological College Baptist Betania
• the energy industrial School complex
• the School complex of construction and architecture Charles Ier
• the industrial School complex of rail-bound transport
• the School complex of the work of wood Avram Iancu

European capital of the culture

Sibiu was indicated European Capitale of the culture of 2007 thanks to its excellent collaboration with Luxembourg, but also thanks to what much sees as a miraculous social rebirth which occurred these last years.

It is waited until the statute of Capital of the culture will bring an abrupt growth of the quantity and quality of the cultural events during 2007. The long-term effects and the impact on the inhabitants of the city, however, are disputed enough. There are people who regard the statute of Capital of the culture as a natural recognition of the merits of the city, while part of the young intellectuals less sees it like one recognition but rather like a chance liberally granted to the city.

Big events having taken place with Sibiu

International facts

• 1671 : beside Sibiu one discovers the gas methane
• 1782: the chemist Franz Joseph Müller discovers the " Tellurium "
• 1795: oldest Paratonnerre of the South-east of Europe is installed in Sibiu
• 1797: Samuel Hahnemann creates the first laboratory of Homéopathie of the world
• 1852: the Rumanian Telegraph appears for the first time; it is oldest today Journal of the South-east of Europe
• 1896: first lines of Electric current of this part of Europe.

Rumanian facts

• 1292 : first hospital of current Romania
• 1380: first certificate of a school in current Romania
• 1494: one opens the first pharmacy of Romania
• 1534: first mill with paper of Romania
• 1544: first book in Rumanian language published with Sibiu in 1544
• 1817: opening of the Brukenthal Museum, the first of current Romania
• 1859: first iron bridge of current Romania
• 1875: first factory of cars of Transylvania
• 1895: opening of the museum of Natural history
• 1896: first powerplants of current Romania
• 1928: opening of the first zoological garden of Romania
• 1904: Sibiu is the 2nd town of Europe to introduce the electric tram
• 1989: Sibiu is the 2nd town of Romania to be opposed to Communism
• 2007: European capital of the Culture.

Twinnings

Gallery photographs

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