Reghin

Reghin developed in the Mureș valley of Transylvania, where routes from mountain districts met the more open country downstream. Mentioned in a charter in 1228, the town included a German-speaking Saxon community alongside Hungarian and Romanian communities in the wider district. Its Gothic church in the German quarter dates from the fourteenth century; in 1427 the town gained the right to hold fairs.

Ottoman expansion and the collapse of medieval Hungarian royal power placed Transylvania in a new political position. Its princes governed between Ottoman influence and Habsburg ambitions, while the Reformation changed religious life. Reghin suffered damage during conflicts involving Habsburg and Ottoman forces in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Mureș valley nonetheless remained a route connecting the town with its surrounding markets and uplands.