Miercurea Sibiului

Miercurea Sibiului (Reußmarkt; Transylvanian Saxon: Ruzmargt; Szerdahely) is a town in the west of Sibiu County, in southern Transylvania, central Romania, 34 km to the west of the county capital, Sibiu.

Administration
Miercurea Sibiului was declared a town in 2004 and it is one of the smallest and least urbanised ones in the country.

The town administers two villages:
 * The village of Apoldu de Sus (Großpold; Nagyapold), 5 km away
 * The village of Dobârca (Dobring; Doborka), 8 km away.

Also, 5 km away there is a small spa town, Băile Miercurea.

At the 2011 census, 83.1% of inhabitants were Romanians, 14.7% Roma, and 1.9% Germans.

Geography
The town lies on the contact area between the Transylvanian Plateau and the Cindrel Mountains, a massif in the Parâng Mountains group in the Southern Carpathians, on a small depression formed by the Secaș River. The river Dobârca is a left tributary of the Secaș that flows through the eponymous village. The river Apold and its left tributary, the Rod, flow through the village Apoldu de Sus.

Miercurea Sibiului has the following neighbors: to the north, the villages Boz, Drașov, and Cunța in Alba County; to the west, the villages Câlnic, Reciu, and Gârbova in Alba County; to the south, the communes Poiana Sibiului, Tilișca, and Jina in Sibiu County; and to the east, the village Aciliu and the commune Apoldu de Jos in Sibiu County.

The town is situated on a main Romanian road link: the DN1 road between Sibiu and Sebeș, E68/E81 European routes. Miercurea Sibiului is also situated on the Căile Ferate Române Line 200, which runs from Brașov to Curtici.

History
The area was inhabited in ancient times by the Dacians; ox-headed Dacian bracelets from the Iron Age have been found in Apoldu de Sus village.

Since the 12th or 13th century the town was inhabited by Transylvanian Saxons and from 1355 it became one of the original seven seats of Saxondom from the Sibiu area.

The town is the place of birth of Ilie Măcelaru (1822–1891), a lawyer who participated in the 1848 revolution and a founding member of the Romanian National Party that was formed in Miercurea Sibiului on 17 March 1869. Other natives include:


 * Victor Capesius (1907–1985), Nazi SS-Sturmbannführer at Dachau and Auschwitz
 * Johann Jungwirth (b. 1973), engineer
 * Cornel Medrea (1888–1964), sculptor
 * Victor Precup (1889–1958), military officer

Education
There is one secondary school in Miercurea Sibiului: the Ilie Măcelariu Technological High School.