Târgu Mureş (pronounced [ˈtɨrgu ˈmureʃ] in Romanian; Romanian: Târgu Mureş; Hungarian: Marosvásárhely, (Székely-)Vásárhely; German: Neumarkt am Mieresch; Latin: Novum Forum Siculorum) is a city in Mureş county, Transylvania, Romania. A deprecated Romanian spelling of its name is Tîrgu Mureş.
Situated at the crossing of three geographic and economic areas – The Transylvanian Field, The Mures Valley and The Nirajului Valley – the territory of Tîrgu-Mures has been the cradle of human settlements, starting from ancient times. Numerous material proofs attest the presence of Neolithic cultures and then those of the Bronze and Metal Ages. The archaeological diggings have brought to light Roman relics in the surroundings of the town.
The settlement has distinguished itself from the very beginning of its history as a locality of fairs, a feature that has defined its destiny along the centuries. In the earliest document, dating from 1300, the locality appears under the name of Forum Siculorum (Market of the Seklars), and then in 1332, its name is Novum Forum Siculorum (The New Market of the Seklars), the Seklars being those inhabitants who did not become serves, but lived freely with the duty of defending the boundaries of the Hungarian Kingdom.
In 1599, duke Mihai Viteazul names the settlement “oppidi nostri Zekelyvásárhely”. The name “market of the Seklars” was used until the 29th of April 1616, when Bethlen Gábor, prince of Transylvania, granted to the settlement the title of free royal town, changing also its official name to Marosvásárhely (Market place on the Mures river – in Hungarian -). The name “market on the Mures river” has been preserved, being translated in the mother tongue of several merchants, who had maintained trade relations in the area: Tîrgu-Mures – for the Romanians, Marosvásárhely – for the Hungarians, Neumarkt am Mieresch – for the Germans, etc.
The city was first documented in 1332 in the papal registry under the name Novum Forum Siculorum.
In 1405, the King of Hungary Sigismund of Luxembourg granted the city of Tîrgu Mureş (by then named Székelyvásárhely, see Székely) the right to organize fairs; in 1482 King Matthias Corvinus declared the city a royal settlement. It became a municipality in 1616, changing its name to Marosvásárhely, the Romanian equivalent of which is Târgu Mureş (târg and vásár mean “Market” in Romanian and Hungarian respectively). The city received a major boost to its social and economic life when it became home to supreme court of justice of the Principality of Transylvania in 1754.
The center of the city in 1821, with the famous Bodor musical fountain in the middle.
Avram Iancu, the leader of the 1848 Romanian revolution in Transylvania, was a young lawyer in the city of Târgu Mureş before engaging in the fight for the rights of Romanians living in Transylvania.
Tirgu Mures's Weblog 