Sibiu

Based on Wikipedia: Sibiu

The Town with Eyes

Look up at the rooftops in Sibiu, and the rooftops look back at you.

Across this medieval Transylvanian city, centuries-old buildings sport distinctive eyebrow dormers—small windows set into steeply pitched roofs that uncannily resemble heavy-lidded eyes peering down at the streets below. The effect is so pronounced that Romanians have nicknamed this place "The Town with Eyes," and first-time visitors often feel genuinely watched as they wander the cobblestone squares.

It's a fitting metaphor for a city that has witnessed an extraordinary parade of history. Sibiu has served as the cultural heart of German settlers in Eastern Europe, the capital of a principality, the birthplace of modern rocketry pioneers, and in 2007, a European Capital of Culture. Today it ranks among the continent's most charming destinations—Forbes once called it Europe's eighth most idyllic place to live.

But what makes Sibiu truly remarkable isn't any single claim to fame. It's the improbable layering of identities: a city where you can hear Romanian, German, and Hungarian spoken in the same café, where medieval fortifications stand within walking distance of Baroque palaces, and where Christmas markets rival Vienna's while summer jazz festivals echo through fortress walls that once repelled Ottoman armies.

A German Island in the Carpathians

To understand Sibiu, you need to understand one of medieval Europe's most ambitious colonization projects.

In the mid-twelfth century, the Hungarian King Géza II faced a problem. Transylvania—that mountainous, forested region ringed by the Carpathian arc—was sparsely populated and vulnerable to invasion. His solution was to invite settlers from the German-speaking lands of the Holy Roman Empire, promising them land, autonomy, and freedom from feudal obligations.

They came by the thousands, beginning around 1147. These colonists hailed from territories that today span Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, though they would become known collectively as "Transylvanian Saxons" regardless of their actual origins. The name stuck even though many came from the Rhineland and Moselle regions rather than Saxony proper.

The first written reference to Sibiu appears in 1191, when Pope Celestine III confirmed the existence of a free ecclesiastical district for these Saxon settlers. At the time, it was called Cibinium or Cipin in Latin. By 1223, documents refer to it as Villa Hermanni—Hermann's Village—though who this Hermann was remains a mystery. Some historians point to Archbishop Hermann II of Cologne. Others suggest a founder named Hermann of Nuremberg. Local legend, with characteristic humor, credits an unnamed shoemaker named Hermann.

Whatever its origins, Hermann's village grew into Hermann's city. The German name Hermannstadt first appears in records from 1366, and by then Sibiu had become something extraordinary: the unofficial capital of a semi-autonomous German commonwealth within the Hungarian kingdom.

The Seven Fortresses

Transylvania takes its German name—Siebenbürgen, meaning "Seven Fortresses"—from the major Saxon settlements that dominated the region. Sibiu was the most important of them all.

By the fourteenth century, the city had developed into a significant trading hub. In 1376, its craftsmen organized themselves into nineteen separate guilds, covering everything from goldsmiths and tanners to coopers and bakers. This guild system wasn't merely economic; it formed the backbone of civic defense. Each guild was responsible for maintaining and defending a specific section of the city walls, and many of Sibiu's surviving towers still bear the names of the trades that once guarded them.

The Saxons developed their own distinctive form of self-governance called the Universitas Saxonum—not a university in the modern sense, but rather an assembly of Saxon communities that functioned as a kind of parliament. This body of pedagogues, ministers, intellectuals, and civic officials created a sophisticated legal and political system that operated with considerable independence from Hungarian royal authority.

This autonomy came with obligations. The Saxons were expected to defend Transylvania's mountain passes against invasion, particularly from the Ottoman Turks who, from the fifteenth century onward, repeatedly threatened to sweep through the Carpathian gates. The fortifications of Sibiu and surrounding Saxon villages—many of which still stand today—were built with this existential threat in mind.

A Crossroads of Empires

Sibiu's political history reads like a game of imperial musical chairs.

For centuries, Transylvania existed in an uncomfortable position between three great powers: the Kingdom of Hungary to the west, the Habsburg Empire to the northwest, and the Ottoman Empire to the south and east. When the Ottomans crushed the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Transylvania became a semi-independent principality that paid tribute to the Sultan while maintaining considerable internal autonomy.

This arrangement lasted until 1699, when the Habsburgs finally wrested control from the Ottomans. Sibiu became the capital of the Principality of Transylvania under Austrian rule—a position it held, with some interruptions, until 1791 and again from 1849 to 1865.

These centuries of Austrian influence left an indelible mark on the city. The grand Baroque architecture of the main squares dates from this period. The famous Brukenthal Palace, now one of Romania's most important museums, was built by Samuel von Brukenthal, who served as Habsburg governor of Transylvania in the late eighteenth century. The palace's art collection, assembled during Brukenthal's lifetime, ranks among the oldest and most significant museum collections in Europe.

A Romanian Awakening

The Saxons weren't Transylvania's only inhabitants, of course. The region had always been home to Romanians—indeed, Romanians claimed to be the descendants of the original Dacian population who had lived there since Roman times. But under Hungarian and later Habsburg rule, Romanians were largely excluded from political power and urban citizenship.

This began to change in the nineteenth century. As nationalist movements swept across Europe, Romanian intellectuals in Transylvania organized to assert their cultural and political identity. Remarkably, Sibiu—that most German of Transylvanian cities—became one of the centers of this Romanian awakening.

The first Romanian-owned bank, the Albina Bank, was founded here. So was ASTRA, the Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and Romanian People's Culture, which became the primary vehicle for promoting Romanian language and national consciousness in the region. When the Romanian Orthodox Church gained official recognition in the Austrian Empire during the 1860s, Sibiu became the seat of the Metropolitan bishop—a position of enormous symbolic importance that the city retains to this day.

By the late nineteenth century, Sibiu had become genuinely bicultural, with parallel German and Romanian institutions operating side by side. The Transylvanian Diet—the regional parliament—met here between 1848 and 1867, during a period when the Habsburgs briefly extended voting rights after the revolutionary upheavals of 1848.

The Great Departure

After World War I, the map of Europe was redrawn. Austria-Hungary dissolved, and Transylvania—along with Sibiu—became part of the expanded Kingdom of Romania. Yet the city remained predominantly German-speaking well into the twentieth century. As late as 1941, ethnic Germans formed the majority of Sibiu's population.

Then came the catastrophe of World War II and its aftermath.

Romania allied with Nazi Germany, and many Transylvanian Saxons served in German military units or were complicit in the Nazi regime's policies. After the war, the new Communist government imposed collective punishment on the German community. Thousands were deported to Soviet labor camps. Others faced expropriation of property and systematic discrimination.

Beginning in the 1950s, and accelerating through the following decades, a slow exodus began. Ethnic Germans emigrated to West Germany and Austria, often paying substantial sums to the Romanian government for exit permits. By the time the Communist regime fell in 1989, Sibiu's German population had dwindled to a small fraction of its former size. The emigration continued at a more moderate pace even after reunification, as economic opportunities in Germany proved more attractive than life in post-Communist Romania.

Today, only about two thousand Transylvanian Saxons remain in Sibiu—a community that once numbered in the tens of thousands. Yet their cultural footprint vastly exceeds their current numbers.

A Saxon Mayor for Democratic Romania

One of the most remarkable chapters in Sibiu's recent history involves Klaus Iohannis, a physics teacher and member of the tiny remaining German minority who became mayor in 2000.

Iohannis served as mayor for fourteen years, during which Sibiu underwent a dramatic transformation. The historic center was meticulously restored. The city's bid to become European Capital of Culture succeeded. Investment flowed in. Sibiu became a model of good governance in a country where corruption remained endemic.

In 2014, Iohannis ran for President of Romania—and won. A member of a minority that constituted less than one percent of the national population had been elected to the country's highest office. It was a testament both to Iohannis's personal reputation and to Romanian voters' hunger for clean, competent government.

His successor as mayor, Astrid Fodor, is also an ethnic German—continuing a tradition of Saxon leadership in a city that is now overwhelmingly Romanian.

The Rockets of Hermannstadt

Among the many surprising facts about Sibiu is its connection to the history of space exploration.

In the sixteenth century, a military engineer named Conrad Haas worked in Hermannstadt designing weapons for the Habsburg arsenal. Sometime between 1529 and 1569, Haas wrote a treatise describing multistage rockets—the fundamental technology that would eventually carry humans to the moon. His manuscripts, rediscovered in the Sibiu archives in 1961, describe rockets with multiple stages that fall away after burning their fuel, as well as delta-shaped fins for stabilization. He may have been the first person in history to conceptualize these designs.

Haas was not merely a weapons designer; he was also something of a humanitarian. His treatise includes a remarkable passage expressing regret at the destructive potential of his inventions and hoping they would never be used against fellow Christians.

Four centuries later, another Sibiu native would take rocketry from theory to practice. Hermann Oberth, born in 1894, became one of the founding fathers of modern astronautics. His 1923 book "The Rocket into Planetary Space" laid the theoretical foundations for spaceflight and influenced a generation of rocket engineers, including Wernher von Braun. Oberth lived to see his dreams realized, consulting on space programs and watching the Apollo missions reach the moon before his death in 1989.

The connection between these two pioneers—separated by four hundred years but linked by their Transylvanian Saxon heritage and their shared fascination with leaving Earth—is one of history's more poetic coincidences.

A City of Museums

Modern Sibiu has parlayed its layered history into a remarkable concentration of cultural institutions.

The Brukenthal National Museum, housed in the Baroque palace of the eighteenth-century governor, contains one of Romania's finest art collections, including works by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Titian. Its library of rare books and manuscripts preserves centuries of Central European intellectual history. Separate branches of the museum cover natural history, pharmacy (located in one of Europe's oldest apothecary shops, dating from the sixteenth century), and military history.

The ASTRA National Museum Complex takes a different approach, focusing on traditional rural life. Its centerpiece is a vast open-air museum sprawling across ninety-six hectares of the Dumbrava Forest south of the city. Here, traditional buildings from across Romania have been relocated and preserved: wooden churches, watermills, farmhouses, and workshops demonstrating how ordinary people lived before industrialization.

Near the railway station, a Steam Locomotives Museum houses some forty historical engines, two of which are still functional. The Dumbrava Sibiului Natural Park, covering nearly a thousand hectares, combines a zoological garden with nature trails through ancient forest.

The Christmas Market Tradition

Since 2007, Sibiu has hosted Romania's first and most celebrated Christmas market, an event inspired by the Viennese tradition but adapted to this Transylvanian setting.

The market began modestly in the Piața Mică—the "Little Square"—with thirty-eight stalls, a small stage, and a few children's attractions. It has since expanded into the Piața Mare—the "Grand Square"—with seventy stalls, an ice skating rink, regular concerts of Christmas carols, and a children's workshop. In 2013, travel publications ranked it among the fifteen most beautiful Christmas markets in Europe.

The success of Sibiu's market sparked imitators across Romania, but the original retains its prestige. For a few weeks each December, the medieval square transforms into a winter wonderland that would not look out of place in Austria or Bavaria—a reminder of the Saxon traditions that shaped this corner of Eastern Europe.

Festivals Beyond Winter

Christmas isn't Sibiu's only claim to festival fame.

The Sibiu International Theatre Festival, held each spring, has grown to become the largest performing arts festival in the world. Yes, the world. What began as a local cultural event now attracts theater companies and performers from dozens of countries, transforming the city's squares, churches, and theaters into stages for hundreds of performances.

August brings a medieval festival that attempts to revive Transylvania's Middle Ages—tournaments, craftspeople demonstrating historical trades, and costumed reenactors filling the streets. The Artmania Festival caters to rock and metal fans each summer. Romania's oldest jazz festival calls Sibiu home. Documentary filmmakers gather for the Astra Film festival. The Carl Filtsch competition celebrates young classical pianists, named for a Transylvanian child prodigy who dazzled audiences in the 1840s before dying of tuberculosis at fifteen.

In 2019, Sibiu was designated the European Region of Gastronomy, celebrating local producers, traditional village workshops, and a culinary heritage that blends Romanian, German, and Hungarian influences. That same year, the city hosted a summit of European Union leaders—a reminder that this provincial Transylvanian capital now plays a role on the continental stage.

The Landscape Around

Sibiu sits near the geographical center of Romania, in a depression surrounded by some of the country's most dramatic scenery.

The Făgăraș Mountains rise just twenty kilometers to the south—a jagged ridge of peaks exceeding 2,500 meters that includes Moldoveanu, Romania's highest summit. These mountains draw hikers and climbers throughout the summer months, offering some of the most challenging and rewarding alpine terrain in Eastern Europe.

The ski resort of Păltiniș lies thirty-five kilometers southwest of the city, administratively part of Sibiu itself. Though modest by Alpine standards, it provides accessible winter recreation for the region. The Arena Platoș resort nearby caters to a similar crowd.

Perhaps most distinctive are the fortified churches scattered through the surrounding countryside. These remarkable structures—churches ringed by defensive walls, watchtowers, and food storage buildings—were built by Saxon communities as refuges against Ottoman raids. Several villages near Sibiu, including Biertan and Valea Viilor, were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1993. They stand as monuments to an era when faith and survival were inseparable concerns.

The Names of a City

Few cities have accumulated as many names as this one.

Romanians call it Sibiu, a name derived from the Bulgar-Turkic word "Sibin," possibly meaning "rejoice." Germans know it as Hermannstadt—Hermann's City—or in the local Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Härmeschtat. Hungarians say Nagyszeben, literally "Big Sibiu." Yiddish speakers called it Seben or Hermanshtat. Latin documents recorded it as Cibinium.

Czech, Polish, Serbian, Bulgarian, and even archaic French each developed their own variants. The proposed Esperanto name is Sibio.

This linguistic abundance reflects the city's position at a crossroads of Central European peoples. For centuries, the streets of Hermannstadt-Nagyszeben-Sibiu echoed with a babel of tongues. German might be spoken in the council chamber, Hungarian in the law courts, Romanian in the marketplace, Yiddish in certain merchant quarters. Each community maintained its own churches, schools, and cultural institutions.

This multilingual heritage hasn't entirely vanished. The Radu Stanca National Theatre still operates sections in both Romanian and German. The Gong Theatre—specializing in puppetry, mime, and unconventional performances for young audiences—likewise performs in both languages. Church services continue in German for the small remaining Saxon community.

A Climate of Contrasts

Sibiu experiences what climatologists call a humid continental climate—cold winters, warm summers, and enough precipitation to keep the surrounding hills green.

Average temperatures hover around 8 to 9 degrees Celsius annually, but this average conceals dramatic swings. Winters bring about 120 days of hard frost; the city sees fifty-six foggy days per year and occasional hail. Summer temperatures can climb into the thirties. Precipitation averages about 644 millimeters annually, spread fairly evenly across the seasons.

This climate favored the orchards and vineyards that once surrounded the city, though suburbanization has consumed much of the agricultural land. The city's parks—including the Sub Arini Park, one of Romania's largest and best-maintained urban green spaces, established in the 1850s—provide some compensation, along with the vast forests of the Dumbrava natural area to the south.

A City Looking Forward

Today Sibiu is home to about 134,000 people, making it Romania's fifteenth largest city. The broader metropolitan area approaches 270,000 inhabitants. It's a university town, an industrial center, and increasingly a technology hub.

In one curious footnote to its modern development, the cryptocurrency company Elrond—which created the eGold cryptocurrency, now known as MultiversX—was founded by people from Sibiu. It's an unexpected connection between medieval towers and blockchain technology, but perhaps not so surprising for a city that has always adapted to changing times while preserving its distinctive character.

The historical center of Sibiu was added to Romania's tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2004, though it has not yet been officially inscribed. The fortified churches in surrounding villages have already achieved that status. Whether or not UNESCO ever grants the designation, Sibiu's old town remains one of the best-preserved medieval urban cores in Eastern Europe—a place where you can still walk streets laid out eight centuries ago, beneath those famous watching windows.

Those eyebrow dormers continue their silent vigil. They've seen Saxons and Habsburgs, Ottomans at the gates and Romanian nationalists in the squares, Communists and capitalists, emigration and renewal. Now they watch tourists photographing themselves in the Grand Square, listen to jazz floating up from summer festivals, and peer down at Christmas shoppers browsing wooden stalls not so different from the medieval market that once filled these same stones.

The town with eyes has seen it all. And it's still watching.