Miercurea Sibiului

Miercurea Sibiului
—  Town  —
Miercurea Sibiului Location of Miercurea Sibiului
Coordinates: 45°53′N 23°47′E / 45.883°N 23.783°E / 45.883; 23.783Coordinates: 45°53′N 23°47′E / 45.883°N 23.783°E / 45.883; 23.783
Country	Romania
County	Sibiu County
Status	Town
Government
– Mayor	Pavel Ioan (Social Democratic Party)
Area
– Total	85.12 km2 (32.9 sq mi)
Population (2002)
– Total	4,063
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
– Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)

Miercurea Sibiului (German: Reußmarkt; Hungarian: Szerdahely) is a town in the west of Sibiu County, in southern Transylvania, central Romania, 34 km to the west of the county capital Sibiu.

The fortified church of Miercurea Sibiului

The fortified church of Dobârca

Administration

Miercurea Sibiului was declared a town in 2004 and it is one of the smallest and least urbanised cities in the country.

The town administers two villages:

• The village of Apoldu de Jos, 5 km away
• The village of Dobârca, 8 km away.

Also, 5 km away there is a small spa town.

Geography

The town lies on the contact area between the Transylvanian Plateau and the Cindrel Mountains, a massif in the Parâng Mountains group in the Southern Carpathians, on a small depression formed by the Secaş River.

The town is situated on a main Romanian road link: the DN1 road between Sibiu and Sebeş, E68/E81 European routes.

History

Since the 12th or 13th century it was inhabited by Transylvanian Saxons and from 1355 it became one of the original seven seats of Saxondom from the Sibiu area.

The city is the place of birth of Ilie Măcelaru (1822-1891), a lawyer who participated in the 1848 revolution and a founding member of the Romanian National Party that was formed in Miercurea Sibiului on 17 March 1869.

References

• (English) page on www.sibiu.hermannstadt.ro/
• (Romanian) history page on County Council website
• (Romanian) info page on County Council website
• (German) Transylvanian Saxons of Reußmarkt (Miercurea Sibiului)