Sfântu Gheorghe

Sister cities

• Kanjiža
• Kiskunhalas
• Budapest District IX
• Cegléd
• Givatayim
• Kráľovský Chlmec

History

Sfântu Gheorghe is one of the oldest urban settlements in Transylvania, the town first having been documented in 1332. The town takes its name from Saint George, the patron of the local church. Historically, it was also known in German as Sankt Georgen. The "sepsi" prefix (sebesi → sepsi, meaning "of Sebes") refers to the area which the ancestors of the local Székely population had inhabited before settling to the area of the town. The previous area of their settlement was around the town of "Sebes" (now Sebeș, in Alba County) which later became populated mainly by Transylvanian Saxons (), being known as Mühlbach in German. While part of the Kingdom of Hungary, the town was the economic and administrative center of the Hungarian county of Háromszék, which spanned the present-day Covasna County and parts of Brașov County. In the second half of the 19th century, Sepsiszentgyörgy witnessed the development of light industry, a textile and a cigarette factory being built. In the aftermath of World War I, the Union of Transylvania with Romania was declared in December 1918. At the start of the Hungarian–Romanian War of 1918–1919, the town passed under Romanian administration. After the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, it became part of the Kingdom of Romania and the seat of Trei Scaune County. In 1940, the Second Vienna Award granted Northern Transylvania to the Kingdom of Hungary. Near the end of that period, the Sfântu Gheorghe ghetto briefly existed in the town. In September 1944, during World War II, Romanian and Soviet armies entered the town. The territory of Northern Transylvania remained under Soviet military administration until 9 March 1945, after which it became again part of Romania; the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947 reaffirmed the town and the entirety of Transylvania…

Most-observed species

• Common Buzzard

  Buteo buteo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  487
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  484
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  440
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  379
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  379
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  315
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  303
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow

  Passer montanus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  289

Most recent

• M 4.4 — 2026-08-25
  13 km SSE of Comandău, Romania
• M 4.6 — 2026-08-11
  9 km ESE of Vama Buzăului, Romania
• M 4.5 — 2026-02-26
  1 km SSW of Paltin, Romania
• M 4.2 — 2025-10-25
  12 km W of Nereju Mic, Romania
• M 4.4 — 2025-08-24
  2 km S of Spulber, Romania
• M 4.1 — 2025-05-16
  13 km NNW of Gura Teghii, Romania