Sibiu - European Capital of Culture 2007

Together with Luxembourg, the city of Sibiu in the Romanian region of Transylvania will be European capital of culture 2007. The Romanian-born German author Richard Wagner attributes the amazing resurgence of the city with 170,000 inhabitants to its "relaxed atmosphere – the product of its long history": "Sibiu was never a centre for ethnic polarisation... Whereas a Romanian right-wing extremist won the post of mayor of Cluj-Napoca (the main city in the region) in the 1990s, and damaged that city's reputation with a series of vulgar campaigns including painting the park benches in the colours of the national flag, Sibiu has established a reputation as a place where reason and moderation prevail. In 1990 when, with the opening of the borders, virtually the entire German minority left the country, a comparatively high number of Germans and intellectuals stayed in Sibiu. This decision to stay, which those who left often derisively described as a stubborn urge to cling on to the former 'King's land', as the Saxons referred to their more or less imaginary territory, was soon rewarded. The good reputation of the German Romanians has taken on mythic proportions in Sibiu. For years now something has developed there that appears to fulfil all the cliches about understanding among different nationalities."

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