THE            TOWN MEDIAS 

It is the second municipality in the district of Sibiu, the Romanian capital            
of the methane gas. 

The  geographic location of the town is on Tarnava Mare river, at a middle           
 altitude of 320.5 m and at 56 km Nort-West from Sibiu. Here is the crossing           
  of the national roads DN 14 - Sibiu - Sighisoara with DN 14A - Tarnaveni            
  - Medias and the districtual road DJ 141 - Medias - Agnita. 

The  railway main line passes through Medias, towards Bucuresti - Brasov           
 - Copsa Mica, with ramifications towards Oradea and Timisoara. The total           
  area of the town is of 6,264 ha. 

The climate is temperate, away from excesses. The annual average of           
 the temperature is of 8,4 0C. 

The  population of the town, according to the census from 1992, is of           
 64,206 inhabitants, among which 50,214 - Romanians, 2,791 - Germans,           
  8,595 - Hungarians, 2,381 - Gypsies, 225 - others. 
  
  Short History 

One   of the most important peculiarities of the town Medias and of its sorroundings            
is the archaeologic attestation of an unceassing continuity since prehistoric           
 times. 
We can find archaeologic traces from the paleolithic, neolithic, the           
 cultures belonging to Bronze and Iron Ages, characteristic for the Geta            
 - Dacian civilisation. After the Roman conquest, one of the well - known            
 Roman roads led on the Valley of T‰rnava Mare river towards Apullum            
 (Alba - Iulia). The continuity of the Dacian - Roman population after            
 the Aurelian retreat (271 after Chr.), along the period of the formation            
 of the Romanian people and language, corresponding to peoples migration            
 (IVth - XIIth centuries), is attested by several archaelogical proofs,            
 one to be mentioned being Bratei culture or Biertan Donarium (IVth century after Chr.),
  whose inscription Ego Zenovius votum possui attests the existence, in this area, of 
  a latin population, after the            
  emperor Aurelian left Dacia. 

The          colonization of the Tarnava Mare area with Germanic population seems to          
be late for more than a century compared to the localities belonging to          
the Province of Sibiu. Before the Saxon colonists were brought here in          
the last year of reign of the King Bela the IV-th (1235 - 1270), the locality          
territory was a Romanian village that is attested for the first time in          
1267. It was a legacy done by King Stephen the Young of Hungary, for his          
son, Jula. 
After the Saxons settled down in Medias, they solicit and obtain, at the          
beginning of the following year, for the Chairs of Media and eica ( The   Two Chairs ), 
the rights that the Saxon colonists from the Province of Sibiu were already enjoying. Later on, 
in the XVI-th century, in Matei          
Corvin times, The Two Chairs will be integrated in the Saxon University          
( Universitas Saxorum ). 

Administrative center of the Chair with the same name (1318), Medias evoluates on the          
XIV-th century from the statute of rural locality to that of town (Civitas          
Megyes, 1359), following the general trajectory of the history of Transylvania.          
Around Margareta Church in the middle of the town, one can find the first          
fortification ( The Castle ), followed by the building of a belt          
of walls, portals and bastions around the mediaeval locality, in the XVth          
- XVIIth centuries, marked by many Ottoman invasions in Transylvania.          
Part of these vestiges are still alive .

Cultural - Touristic Objectives 

The town's fortifications. They have been gradually built, during the            
XIIIth - XVIth centuries.They have been started, as almost all the settlements           
 of the Saxon colonists from the southern part of Transylvania, from            
 the church - castle, called in Medias, the Castle. 

The Castle - represents the nucleus of the mediaeval fortification system.            
The fortification consists of two ranges of consolidated walls with            
defense towers around the Evangelic Church, following the type of rural            
churches. 




With modifications brought by ulterior constructions, a great number of          
vestiges is still preserved. The Bells Tower ,The School Tower ,The Spinners Tower ,
The Tailors Tower (that became a school          in the XIXth century) and Maria's Tower , 
still keeping remains          of a fresco, used for some time as a Catholic chapel. 
http://www.sibiu.hermannstadt.ro/sumar_frame_en.htm