Hermannstadt

Hermannstadt (Lat. Cibinium, Hung. Nagy-Szeben), a town of Hungary, formerly capital of Transylvania, is situated at the terminus of a branch-line (28 miles long), 370 miles SE. of Pesth. It consists of an upper and a lower town, the walls, towers, and bastions formerly surrounding which have only recently been demolished. Hermannstadt is the seat of a Greek archbishop and of a 'Saxon' university. The fine Bruckenthal palace contains a picture-gallery, numismatic, antiquarian, and mineral collections, and a library of some 30,000 volumes. Tanning, wax-bleaching, and the making of cloth, paper, candles, sugar, and hats are carried on. Pop. (1891) 21,465, of whom 15,000 are Germans. Hermannstadt was originally the seat of a German colony, founded in the reign of Gesa II. (1141-61), and was at first called Villa Hermanni. It has endured several sieges from the Turks (1438 and 1442), as well as one from the followers of John Zapolya (1526). It also suffered at the hands of Gabriel Bathori in 1610, and again from both combatants during the Russo-Hungarian war of 1849.