Sfântu Gheorghe

Sfântu Gheorghe (also spelled Sfîntu Gheorghe) is a municipality and capital city of Covasna County. Located in the central part of Romania, historical region of Transylvania , it lies on the Olt River in a valley between the Baraolt (Barót) and Bodoc (Bodok) Mountains. The villages of Chilieni/Kilyén and Coşeni/Szotyor are also administratively part of Sfântu Gheorghe Municipality.

Sfântu Gheorghe is one of the oldest cities in Transylvania, the settlement first having been documented in 1332. The city takes it name from Saint George, the patron of the local church. Historically it was also known in German as Sankt Georgen. The "sepsi-" prefix denotes the origins of the local Székely population, which has its roots in the region around the town of Sebeş/Szászsebes (later populated mainly by Transylvanian Saxons) in western Transylvania's Alba (Fehér) County.

While part of the Kingdom of Hungary, the city was the economic and administrative center of the Hungarian county of Háromszék, which spanned the present-day Covasna (Kovászna) County and parts of Braşov (Brassó) County. In the second half of the 19th century, Sepsiszentgyörgy witnessed the development of light industry, namely a textile and a cigarette factory was built. It became part of the Kingdom of Romania following the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, after the end of World War I. After the Second Vienna Award in 1940 the city came under Hungarian control for four years. At the end of the Second World War the Paris Peace Treaties reaffirmed the city and the entirety of Transylvania as a Romanian territory. Between 1952-1960 it was the southernmost town of the Magyar Autonomous Region, and between 1960-1968 was part of the Braşov (Brassó) Region, abolished in 1968 when Romania was reorganised based on counties rather than regions.

Sfântu Gheorghe is one of the centres for the Székely people in the region known to them as Székelyföld in Hungarian - which means "Székely Land", and is home to the Székely National Museum. The city hosts two market fairs each year.

Sights:

• Fortified Church (Biserică Fortificată) - constructed in the 14th century in the Gothic style
• State Archive, the former headquarters of the Hussar battalions
• County library constructed in 1832 as the seat of the county council
• Theater used from 1854–1866 as the city hall
• The market bazaar built in 1868, with a clock tower built in 1893