Sfântu Gheorghe

Sfântu Gheorghe, called Sepsiszentgyörgy in Hungarian, lies in the upper Olt basin among the Székely communities of southeastern Transylvania. Named for the patron saint of its church, it was recorded as a market town in 1461 and enjoyed urban privileges by the end of the century. Crafts and fairs made it a centre for the surrounding district. Ottoman and Tatar attacks devastated the town in the seventeenth century, and disease and drought followed. In 1782 a spring fair on St George's Day supplemented its older markets.