Sărmașu

Sărmașu is located roughly in the middle of Transylvania , on the Pârâul de Câmpie stream in the Transylvanian Heath ( Câmpia Transilvaniei ). The district capital Târgu Mureş is located about 40 km southeast.

history

Archaeological finds show that the region has been settled since the Neolithic and the Bronze Age . The place was first mentioned in 1329 under the name Willa Sarmas ; at that time the place was given by the Hungarian king to a nobleman named István Pogány. In a document from 1348, Sărmașu was given to another noble family by King Ludwig I ; in this context a wooden church is also mentioned. At first, the place was mainly inhabited by Hungarians ; later Romanians dominated . In 1895 the Hungarian state bought an estate and settled Hungarians from the west of the country there. Natural gas production began around 1910. After the First World War , Sărmașu came to Romania. Even after the Second Vienna Arbitration, the place remained with Romania, but was close to the Hungarian border. In September 1944, 126 Jews from the town were murdered by Hungarian troops. From 1947 to 1968 Sărmașu was a local administrative center; In 2003 the place received city status.

In addition to natural gas production, important industries are agriculture, wood processing and the construction industry.

population

In the 1850 census of 2274 inhabitants in the area of today's city in 2030 Romanians , 125 Hungarians , 116 Roma and two Romanian Germans . 745 of them lived in Sărmașu in the narrower sense, the rest in the villages that are incorporated today. As a result of the above-mentioned settlement of Hungarians from abroad, they made up about two thirds of the village population in 1910 (1326 of 2101); In the surrounding towns, however, the Romanians remained in the majority.

Up to 1966 there was a significant increase in population (8867); thereafter the population decreased. In 2002, 7,493 people were registered in the city, including 5,086 Romanians, 1,820 Hungarians and 577 Roma. 3877 lived in the actual city, 3616 in the seven incorporated villages.

traffic

Sărmașu is located on the railway line from Șieu-Măgheruș to Luduș , which is currently (2009) served by the private provider Regiotrans. Around five local trains run in both directions every day. There are regular bus connections to Târgu Mureș .