Cisnădie

Heltau is located about 8 km southwest of Sibiu at the foot of the Southern Carpathians. Two brooks flow through the city, the Pârâul Argintului ( Silberbach ) and the Pârâul Ursului ( Bärenbach ).

history

Heltau was first mentioned in a document in 1204, founded by Germans ( Transylvanian Saxons ) and for centuries inhabited by the majority of Transylvanian Saxons. In 1425 Heltau received the first tower clock in Transylvania. In 1500, on the occasion of a visit by King Wladislaus II , the city received market rights .

The period from the 15th to the 17th century was marked by countless Turkish invasions , but also Wallachian raids, which caused great devastation. In 1660 there were 411 deaths during a plague epidemic .

The family of Klaus Johannis , the incumbent President of Romania , has been mentioned in a document in Heltau since the 16th century.

population

1734 125 settled about Landler in Heltau. In 1941, Heltau had 5,385 inhabitants, 3,691 of them German. The highest number of inhabitants of Cisnădie itself (18,830) and also that of the Romanian Germans (4,886) was reached in 1977, that of Hungarians (295) in 1956 and that of Roma (132) in 1930. In 1946 the village received city rights. As early as the 1950s, the Transylvanian Saxons began to be resettled in the Federal Republic of Germany , in the form of the reunification of families whose husbands had been sent to Germany after the Second World War or as a result of the deportation to Russia . This trend continued in the years that followed and reached its peak after the December 1989 revolution .

Economy and Social

Entrance sign with the Romanian and German city names and the city arms

Heltau

The Heltau textile industry was famous , in 1944 there were 176 larger and smaller textile companies with a total of 36,850 spindles and 503 looms. In the 1990s the textile industry fell into a serious crisis, which led to an increase in unemployment in Cisnădie.

Attractions

Fortified church

Fortified church , early 13th century
Textile Industry Museum

Personalities

Johann Bergleiter (1774–1843), Protestant bishop in Transylvania
Caspar Helth (around 1520–1574), Protestant theologian, writer, publisher and reformer
Oskar Paulini (1904–1980), writer
Gustav Gündisch (1907–1996), historian and archivist
Karin Gündisch (* 1948), writer
Birgit Kelle (* 1975), publicist
Roberto Dietrich (* 1984), politician

Religions

In addition to a very active Protestant church , Heltau has two Orthodox , two Greek Catholic churches and several houses of prayer belonging to Protestant free churches .