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Important dates:
| 1191 |
The
territory of the actual city of Sibiu had been documentary
attested for the first time. |
| 1292 |
Is mentioned the first
hospital which is the first hospital build on the
actual territory of Romania. |
| 1366 |
The
name of Hermannstadt is mentioned for the first
time |
| 1376 |
Documents
mention the existence of 19 small guilds whom members
could practice 25 crafts |
| 1380 |
It's mentioned in
documents the first school. |
| 1462 |
At
Sibiu is published the oldest German manuscris in
Transylvania. |
| 1494 |
The first pharmacy
on the actual territory of Romania is opened. |
|
| 1528 |
The first printing
house in Transylvania |
| 1551 |
Conrad Haas is the
worldwide the first man who made experiments with
dirigible rockets and 'delta wings' |
| 1557 |
The
first bookshop is opened in town. |
| 1671 |
Valentin
Franck von Franckenstein notifies and draws the
attention upon the discovery of methane gas near
Bazna by some Romanian shepherds |
| 1692 |
Hermannstadt becomes
the capital of Transylvania and residence of the
governor. |
|
| 1752 |
The
first Theatrical performance in town. |
| 1769 |
The first theater
is opened in the residence of baron Möringer in
Large Square.
In the same year at 27 December, Samuel von Brukenthal
is installed as Imperial Commissioner and 8 years
later he will become governor of Transylvania. |
| 1778 |
Martin
Hochmeister builds the first bookshop and published
the first theater magazine in Romania: 'Theater
Wochenblatt'. |
| 1782 |
Franz Josef Müler
discovered Telur element |
| 1783 |
The first school manual
in Romanian |
| 1787 |
The
first Orthodox Church is opened |
| 1788 |
Martin Hochmeister
opened the first public theater in the Thick Tower. |
| 1789 |
Ioan Piuariu Molnar published the first Romanian newspaper
|
| 1797 |
Samuel von Hahnemann
opens the first laboratory of homeopathy |
|
| 1817 |
At
25 February the Brukenthal Museum opens its gates
to the public. It's the first museum in Romania. |
| 1818 |
The first musical
society is founded. |
| 1820 |
The
streets are illuminated at night. |
| 1822 |
Michael Bielz founded
the first lithographic house in Transylvania. |
| 1833 |
The
periodical magazine 'Transylvania' is published.
|
| 1846 |
Johann
Strauss and Franz Listz perform in town. |
| 1849 |
Transyilvania Society
for Natural Science is founded |
| 1850 |
Andrei
Saguna founded the first publish house in Romanian |
| 1853 |
A new Romanian newspaper:
'Telegraful Roman'. It's the oldest newspaper in
Romania and SE Europe. |
| 1861 |
The
ASTRA cultural association is founded. |
| 1884 |
Tribuna newspaper
is published for the first time. Director: Ioan
Slavici. |
| 1885 |
The
first telephone line is installed in city. |
| 1895 |
ASTRA comity publishes
the first Romanian Encyclopedia ( the 3-rd in Europe)
Museum of Natural Science is opened. |
|
| 1904 |
Sibiu
is the third city in Austro-Hungarian Empire illuminate
with electric power.
The first electric tramway is built. It's the second
city in Europe where an electric tramway is used
|
| 1905 |
The ASTRA building
is finishes in the City Park |
| 1906 |
The
Orthodox Cathedral is finished. |
| 1914 |
The new organ is installed
in the Evangelic Cathedral. With 6000 tubes is the
largest in S-E Europe. |
| 1917 |
The
first cinema is opened. |
| 1919 |
The name of the city
becomes officially Sibiu. |
| 1925 |
The
first radios are sold in Sibiu. |
| 1934 |
There are 36 newspapers
and magazines in German and 24 in Romanian . |
| 1989 |
Sibiu
became the second city in Romania where the anti-Communist
revolution started. |
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The Sibiu area shelters archelogical
findings from Late Stone Age, Early Bronze and Iron Age
to pre-Roman settlements inhabited by Dacian tribes. Traces
of a Roman settlement named Cedonia puts Sibiu on the
map of the Dacian Province of the Roman Empire.
Under the pressure of migratory tribes’ devastations,
in 271 Emperor Aurelius retreated from Dacia. However,
it appears that part of the "vulgar-Latin" speaking
population continued to exist in smaller remote communities
as proven by findings dating from the 4th to 7th centuries
- Roman coins, evidence of early Christianity in sections
of Latin inscriptions like the "Donarium
of Biertan/Birthälm".
The colonists, named in the documents “teutonici”,
“flandres” or “saxones” established
around 1150 a settlement called “Villa Hermanni”
– Hermannsdorf, later Hermannstadt, mentioned first
in a document in 1191 by Pope Celestin III. Hermannsdorf
evolved towards urban life and got the rank of city –
civitas in 1366.
The German colonists’ settlements united in seven
Chairs, which towards the end of the 15th century formed
a coherent administrative system called The University
of Saxon Nation whilst Sibiu/Hermannstadt became the capital
city of the Saxons.
The city grew in importance as it developed a prosperous
trade with Hungary, Poland and the southern province of
Wallachia.
The craftsmen in Hermannstadt also bartered goods - mainly
clothes and tools - with the Romanian population. Production
and trade developed and flourished, due to the activity
of the guilds.
Their first written regulations (1367) mentioned 19 guilds,
with 25 trades. Their number constantly grew. The flourishing
period was shadowed by the Turkish danger as invasions
followed one after the other beginning with 1394, 1432,
1437 and 1438, when the town successfully resisted against
a siege led by the sultan Murad th 2nd.
In 1493 the city’s army reinforced by Romanian troops
and led by Georg Hecht ambushed and defeated the Turkish
army on their way back after a plunder campaign. The city
extended and built concentric fortification walls, towers
and bastions. After the Battle of Mohacs in 1526 Turks
conquer the capital Buda in 1541 and put Hungary and Transylvania
under their authority.
The Humanistic ideas and the Renaissance greatly changed
the aspect of the town and its life, prompting the Saxons
in 1543 to adopt the religious reformation, converting
„in corpore“ to the Lutheran confession. At
the end of the 16th century, at the end of some victorious
campaigns, the Romanian prince Michael The Brave defeated
the Hungarian army in 1599 under the walls of the town
and united Transylvania with the province of Wallachia.
As the Turks were defeated by the Austrians at the end
of the 17th century, Transylvania became a great principality
of the Austrian Empire. The administrative power in the
province was exercised between 1692-1790 from Sibiu/Hermannstadt.
Although the Saxons preserved their Lutheran confession,
the Catholic church embarked on a counter-Reform campaign,
promoting the Baroque style with an visible impact on
the town‘s architecture.
At the end of the 18th century the governor of Transylvania
Samuel von Brukenthal had gathered an impressive library
and rich art collections, mentioned since 1773 in the
Almanach von Wien.
The collections were opened to the public in 1817 and
became later the core of Brukenthal Museum. In the 18th
century the town extended over the precinct walls, forming
the district Josephin, Terezian and Lazaret. Since beginning
with the 1541 only Saxons could have properties inside
the walls of the town, the Romanian population settled
in these districts.
The reign of Joseph the 2nd, marked by Enlightenment reforms
gave in 1781 other ethnic groups the right to live in
the town alonside with the Saxons. As a result, the Romanian
orthodox bishop Vasile Moga and his church settled in
the town. The Romanian population became more and more
present in the life of the town, which become around the
middle of the 19th century the spiritual centre of the
Romanians’ struggle for political emancipation.
The Austrian–Hungarian dualism strippedd the privileges
and the territorial administrative autonomy of the Saxons.
Transylvania was annexed to Hungary since 1867. The city
witnessed once again an economical flourishing. Between
1840 and 1918, a number of 33 industrial enterprises were
active in Sibiu/Hermannstadt. The electric plant was founded
in 1896 and the electric tramway appeared in town in 1905.
At the end of World War I, in 1918 the Romanian population
decides to unite Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania,
followed in 1919 by the Saxons’ Assembly voted for
joining in.
Sibiu became the seat of the provisional government until
the unification was completed.
Although the number of Romanians in town substantially
raised, Sibiu/Hermannstadt remained the main centre of
the German culture and education in Romania and witnessed
a vivid cultural life of all the ethnic groups.
Sibiu did not suffer distructions during WW II but, after
the war, the new communist authorities backed by Moskau
began to nationalise the factories and the land while
launching waves of pollitical trials and arrests against
all oponents. For the population of Sibiu a long suffering
began. The communist authorities considered Saxons guilty
in corpore for collaborating with the German Reich and
many of them were deported in the Soviet Union for forced
labour.
Prompted by the dictatorial regime and economic hardships
Saxons began in the 70’s to emmigrate to West Germany.
The massive emmigration continued even after the Revolution
in 1989, leaving in Sibiu only 2.200 Saxons.
As economic hardships and oppression grew during the 80’s,
the population of Sibiu was fast to rebel against the
communist regime in December 1989, when 91 persons lost
their life in the armed clashes.
During the 90’s the city restored its democratical
institutions and faces now the task of renewing the infrastructure
and raising the living standard of its inhabitants.
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