Gherla

Gherla ( German Neuschloss or Armenian town , Hungarian Szamosújvár , Armenian Հայաքաղաք - Hayakaghak ) is a city in Romania and is located in the Cluj district in the Transylvania region on the Someșul Mic (Little Somesch) river .

In 2007 the city had about 22,000 inhabitants. In addition to Dumbrăveni , Gherla was one of the two centers of Armenian culture in Transylvania and in what was then the Kingdom of Hungary . However, the Transylvanian Armenians have been largely Magyarized over the centuries .

About 5 kilometers from the city is the Nicula Monastery , one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Transylvania.

history

The area of Gherla was already settled in Roman times . In the second century AD, the Gherla castle and other Roman settlements were located here .

The place itself was first mentioned in 1291 as Gerlahida . Until the 15th century the place was owned by different families, from 1467 it belonged to the diocese of Großwardein . When Armenians increasingly fled the Moldova to Transylvania from the 1670s onwards , they allowed themselves to a. next to the village and founded there in 1700 Armenian town . City, village and other surrounding settlements grow together in the course of the 18th and 19th centuries. Due to their important role as commercial entrepreneurs, the Armenians and their cities enjoyed stately support and privileges. The Armenian urban population increasingly adopted the Hungarian language and culture in the 19th century.

In addition to its former Armenian population, Gherla is also a cultural and historical specialty in Transylvania because the baroque city was laid out according to plan. The most important building is the Armenian Catholic Trinity Church, built between 1748 and 1804.

On December 19, 1853, Pope Pius IX founded the diocese of Gherla as a suffragan diocese of the archdiocese of Făgăraş and Alba Iulia . In 1924 the headquarters of the diocese was moved from Gherla to Cluj ( Klausenburg ).

fortress

The former fortress in the north of Gherla was built in the middle of the 16th century by Georg Martinuzzi in the Renaissance style. The Hungarian and the early modern German name of the place - Szamosújvár or Neuschloss - derive from the construction of the new castle . Since 1785, the facility has served as a prison, in which political prisoners were also housed as part of the “ Piteşti experiment ” during the communist era .

photos

Armenian Catholic Cathedral
synagogue
Solomon Church
Armenian-Hungarian cemetery

Town twinning

Forchheim , Bavaria , Germany (since 2000)
Yzeure , Allier department , France

Web links

Commons : Gherla - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ 2011 census in Romania at citypopulation.de
↑ Dumitru Protase, Nicolae Gudea and Radu Ardevan : Din istoria militară a Daciei romane. Castrul roman de interior de la Gherla. / From the military history of the Roman Dacia. The Roman inner fort of Gherla . Editura Mirton, Timişoara 2008, ISBN 978-973-52-0387-0 .
^ Robert H. Hewsen: Armenia. A Historical Atlas . The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2001, ISBN 0-226-33228-4 , p. 161.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Judit Pál: Art. Gherla . In: Harald Roth (Ed.): Siebenbürgen . Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 978-3-520-33001-7 , pp. 89-92.
^ Virgil I. Pop: Armenopolis, a Baroque founding city . In: Zeitschrift für Siebenbürgische Landeskunde 21 (1998), pp. 168–191.
^ ^A ^b David Hill: Gherla: Romania's Baroque Town with a Modern Twist . February 22, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
^ Gherla, Romania . Website of the city of Forchheim. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
^ Website of the city of Yzeure.Retrieved June 21, 2016.

[1] 2011 census in Romania at citypopulation.de

[2] Dumitru Protase, Nicolae Gudea and Radu Ardevan : Din istoria militară a Daciei romane. Castrul roman de interior de la Gherla. / From the military history of the Roman Dacia. The Roman inner fort of Gherla . Editura Mirton, Timişoara 2008, ISBN 978-973-52-0387-0 .

[3] Robert H. Hewsen: Armenia. A Historical Atlas . The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2001, ISBN 0-226-33228-4 , p. 161.

[pal-4] Judit Pál: Art. Gherla . In: Harald Roth (Ed.): Siebenbürgen . Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 978-3-520-33001-7 , pp. 89-92.

[5] Virgil I. Pop: Armenopolis, a Baroque founding city . In: Zeitschrift für Siebenbürgische Landeskunde 21 (1998), pp. 168–191.

[hill-6] A ^b David Hill: Gherla: Romania's Baroque Town with a Modern Twist . February 22, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2010.

[7] Gherla, Romania . Website of the city of Forchheim. Retrieved September 28, 2010.

[8] Website of the city of Yzeure.Retrieved June 21, 2016.