In 1200 Hermannstadt is not yet a town in law but the chief village of the German guests settled by Géza II on the Cibin, about half a century old, and the seat of their provost, whose church gives the place its first written name (Cibinium, 1191).
It stands on the hill above the Cibin river where the road from the Maros meets the road south to the Red Tower pass, among the first settlers' villages of its chapter (Neppendorf, Hammersdorf, Schellenberg, Großscheuern, Stolzenburg, Burgberg). The church and settlement were probably closed by earthworks or a palisade. The German name, Villa Hermanni, appears in 1223; stone walls, a council and town law come much later.
Who holds it
- Name
- King Emeric; the provost of Hermannstadt is the guests' church head (name not pinned for 1200)
- Title
- Lord of Hermannstadt
- Since
- Provostry confirmed 20 December 1191
- Confidence
- medium
en.wikipedia (Sibiu): first records as Cibinium and Cipin in 1191, when Celestine III confirmed the free provostry of the Germans of Transylvania with its seat here; provost styled praepositus Cibiniensis 1192-1196; Villa Hermanni in 1223. de.wikipedia (Hermannstadt): first settlers presumably about 1147 on the hill above the Cibin, the church and settlement probably fortified with earthworks or palisades; town law only from the mid-14th century.
Lord in 1200
The king, whose guests the Germans are; their church head is the provost of Hermannstadt, exempt from the bishop of Transylvania and subject to the archbishop of Esztergom. A royal count of Hermannstadt is recorded only from 1210 or 1211 (Joachim).
How things stand that morning
The provost's seat and the chief village of the Altland, governing nothing beyond its own fields; the Altland as a body is in the province record of the German guests.
Charter
None. The guests' freedoms as royal guests go back to Géza II, but are written down only in the Andreanum of 1224; town law from the 14th century.
Council
No town council. The community of guests under its village heads (gerébs); the provost and the priests for church affairs.
Communities
German guests from the Rhine, Moselle and the Low Countries (Flandrenses, Theutonici), with some Walloons (Latini).
Fairs and markets
None recorded for 1200.
Militia
The guests' armed men, led by their gerébs, serve in the king's host.
Walls and castle
Probably earthworks or palisades round the church hill; no stone wall yet.
Trade and crafts
Farming village on the Cibin with smiths and craftsmen; a road junction toward the Red Tower pass and the Olt; salt from nearby Vízakna passes on the roads.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Papal letters of 1191-1192 and the provost's title; the settlement's form is archaeological inference.
Primary sources for Transylvania (voivode Legforus)
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
- Hungarian royal charters: Fejér's Codex diplomaticus and Szentpétery's critical calendar of the Árpád kings (documents of the 11th to 13th centuries; Fejér published 1829 to 1844, Szentpétery vol. 1 in 1923). The documentary base for Hungary in 1200: King Emeric's grants to Pannonhalma, the bishops, the Templars and Hospitallers, Duke Andrew's acts in Croatia and Dalmatia, and the papal letters of 1200 to Emeric about his brother's rebellion and about heresy in Bosnia. Read online
Sources and studies
- Sibiu, en.wikipedia (history)
- Hermannstadt, de.wikipedia (history)
- Siebenbürger Sachsen, de.wikipedia
- L. Makkai, Saxon Settlement and the Reorganization of the Southern Border Defences, History of Transylvania I
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.