In 2007 Sibiu is the European Capital of Culture together with Luxembourg

Dear Sir/Madam, This page has been made for you in the name of the good spirits of this town, in the name of the geniuses who have bestowed their talent upon this town for eight centuries. But the town has also been subjected to hardships, which have molded its appearance, as you can see it nowadays in its every corner while taking a walk. Of course, you are not here to find the routine from home, but to enrich your mind with living memories - all these value much more than bought souvenirs - and Sibiu (Hermannstadt), with its 800 years of history, will give you the opportunity to take back home many beautiful memories. So, the Small Circle or "Circulus parvus" (today's Small Square) and some of the surrounding streets must have been there since 1100, because starting with 1224 Sibiu was the capital of Southern Transylvania, having its own mint. Nearby is the Great Circle or "Circulus maior" (today's Large Square), first known as the grain market, dating as far back as 1400.

From the chronicles, we find out that, after having been invaded by the Tartars, Sibiu (Hermannstadt) was reinforced with surrounding defence constructions, which protected the town from the Turks' attacks starting with 1432, thus making Pope Eugene IV describe it as "the stronghold defending the whole Christian world." A lot may be said about the town's guilds (19 in number in 1376 and 34 in 1724), about the Evangelical Church, the Town's Gates, the Council Tower, the Brukenthal Palace and the museum bearing its name, which dates as far back as 1817 (built 2 years before the Louvre), Thalia Hall, rebuilt following successive fire outbreaks, the Old Town Hall and the History Museum, the Natural Sciences Museum, the original "ASTRA" National Museum Complex, consisting of a Traditional Folk Civilization Museum and "Emil Sigerius" Transylvanian Saxon Ethnography Museum, the Orthodox Cathedral, the Shelter Church, the Ursulines' Church, the Franciscan Church, the Church amid Fir-Trees, the Brukenthal Secondary School, the Association Museum and ASTRA Library, the Passage of the Stairs, the Goldsmiths' Square, etc.

In Sibiu, Haydn was played one year after the opening night in Vienna, Brahms and Liszt gave concerts, and the great humanists of the time, people such as Andrei Saguna, Lucian Blaga, Gheorge Cosbuc, Octavian Goga, Constantin Noica, and Emil Cioran lived. Starting with 1704, four orders were given against smoking, the first vaccines against smallpox were administered 200 years ago, and the Brukenthal Secondary School was attested 600 years ago and the Faculty of Theology more than 200 years ago. The hospitals and chemist's shops are centuries old and the technical field may boast its representatives and their unique work: Conrad Haas and his famous manuscript on spacecraft (between 1529 and 1559), Hermann Oberth, who put the scientific bases of space navigation techniques and designed and built a functional model of the liquid fuel rocket, the engineers who built the first Car Plant in Ardeal (more than 100 years ago), the tramway, which is among the earliest in Europe, the first "firobus" (an electrically powered trolley) in Romania (built a year later than the one in New York), the hydropower station at Sadu, electrifications, railways, etc.

Each step means history and present, and everywhere you will be accompanied by the "eyes of the city," located on the old roofs. For hundreds of years they have been the mirror of the soul of this friendly place, where people of various nationalities live in harmony, regardless of cultural or religious background.

We are looking forward to seeing you at the conference in July, in the year of the European Capital of Culture in Sibiu (Hermannstadt). MSE 2007 Organisation Committee

For more information about our university and city, please visit also the following websites:

www.ulbsibiu.ro
www.sibiu.ro
www.romanianfolkart.ro/muzeulastra
www.brukenthalmuseum.ro
www.ocnasibstrand.ro