Zalău

Zalău, or Zilah, stands in a valley at the foot of the Meseș Mountains, on a route between the Hungarian plain and Transylvania. Recorded as Ziloc in 1220, the settlement was held by a bishopric in the Middle Ages. Its position near the mountain passage helped make it a market for the surrounding region.

On 1 August 1473 King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary granted Zilah the status of a market town and privileges of trade. In the sixteenth century it became part of the Principality of Transylvania. The town maintained its own council, and a seventeenth-century chronicle records a variety of crafts, including pottery, shoemaking, tailoring and metalwork. Its privileges were confirmed in 1601, giving its inhabitants a measure of control over local affairs.