Reghin
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Reghin (German: (Sächsisch) Regen; Hungarian: Szászrégen or Régen) is a city and municipality in Mureş county in Romania, on the Mureş River in Transylvania. It is the place of origin for the Sasregen Hasidic Jewish dynasty.
The city, previously inhabited mainly by Germans (Transylvanian Saxons) and Hungarians, had a population of approximately 35,700 in 2004. Today's city of Reghin is traditionally divided into two independent cities (German/Hungarian: Sächsich Regen/Szászrégen and Ungarisch Regen/Magyarrégen).
Location
Reghin lies 29km north-northeast of Târgu Mureş, extending on both shores of the Mureş River, at the confluence with the Gurghiu River. It was created by the 1926 union of the German-inhabited and the Hungarian-inhabited city, and later joined with the two smaller communities Apalina (Hungarian: Abafája; German: Bendorf) and Iernuţeni (Hungarian: Radnótfája; German: Etschdorf), added in 1956.
The two old (German and Hungarian) parts of the city are separated by the Gurghiu.
History
Reghin was first mentioned in 1228 in a charter of Hungarian King Andrew II as Regun - however, evidence of its strategic location and defence system suggests that the town might have been considerably older, possibly founded during by Ladislaus I.Despite of the devastations of the city during the Mongol invasion (1241) and during the Tatar and Cuman incursions (1285), the town developed rapidly: already in the second half of the 13th century the city is the residence and power centre of the families Tomaj and Kacsik, to whom the nearby lands were awarded by the Hungarian Crown. Reghin became a minor ecclesial centre in 1330, with the building of the Gothic church (Roman Catholic at the time, it now serves the Protestant community) in the German part of the city; it is still the largest church in the area, and hosts the oldest Medieval Latin inscription of any church in Transylvania. The Hungarian part of the city has an even older church, initially built in the Romanesque style.
In the beginning of the 15th century the settlement gained city rights, and, from 1427, the right to hold fairs. In the 16th and 17th century Reghin was devasted by Habsburg and Ottoman troops on several occasions. It burned to the ground in 1848.
In 1920 Reghin, was awarded to Romania by the Treaty of Trianon, together with the rest of Transylvania. During the 20th century, the city has completely lost its original Transylvanian Saxon character - as many Germans left for Western Germany during the latter stages of Communist Romania - and ethnic Romanians were settled in their place. In 1910 there were 7,310 inhabitants, of which 2,994 were German, 2,947 Hungarian and 1,311 Romanian. The data of the 1992 census showed a population of 24,601 Romanians, 12,471 Hungarian, 1,790 Roma, and 346 Germans.
Landmarks
The traditionally German city:- the Protestant (Lutheran) church, built in 1330 in honour of Saint Mary. Burnt down in 1708 and in 1848, after which it had been rebuilt.
- the Roman Catholic church, which was consecrated in 1781. A Calvinist church was built in 1890.
- the Greek-Catholic church, built between 1811 and 1813, nowadays Romanian Orthodox.
- the Protestant (Calvinist) church, 13th century, in 1910 completely rebuilt.
- the Greek-Catholic church, built in 1744, nowadays Romanian Orthodox.
- a Romanian Orthodox Cathedral was built in the city in the 1990s.
- the renowned zoological and folklore collections.
People
- Josef Haltrich (*1822, †1886), ethnographer, historician.
- Ferenc Kós (*1828), writer
- Rudolf Wagner-Régeny (*1903 †1969), composer
- Georg Maurer (*1907, †1971), writer
- Jutta Pallos-Schönauer (*1925), Painter
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