Hoghilag

Hoghilag ( German Halvelagen or Halwelagen, Hungarian Holdvilag ) is a town in the district of Sibiu in Transylvania, Romania.

Since 1900 Halvelagen has the status of a municipality (Romanian: Comuna ), probably due to its size at the time of between 600 and 1000 inhabitants. Today, around 1,000 people living in Hoghilag. With the two cadastral Prod Valchid and there are more than 2000.

Geography

Halvelagen extends along the north side of the valley of Târnava Mare ( Great Kokel German, Hungarian Nagy Kükülő ). Directly adjacent villages are Dumbrăveni (Eng. Elizabeth City, ung Erzsébetváros ) to the west, Prod (German Pruden ) in the Northeast, Laslea (German Lasseln ) in the southeast and Valchid (German forest huts ) in the south. Other neighboring larger towns are the towns of Sighişoara (German Sighisoara, 20 km east) and Medias (English Medias, 30 km to the west ).

History

Halvelagen was probably founded in the 14th century by the Saxons. The German name Halvelagen comes from the Hungarian naming Holdvilag and probably means settlement of the Moon. In the course of the settlement of a characteristic Transylvanian fortified churches built in Halvelagen. The castle wall around the church and the steeple Halvelagens were demolished in the 17th century.

On one of the higher mountains around Halvelagen there was once a signal tower or a smaller castle ( castle Pfaff ). In the 1970s, remnants of sandstone steps and walls were found.

In 1900, wandered much of the Halvelagener to America. There she worked among others in steelworks and sausage factories to Chicago and Detroit. In the years around 1960 lived in Halvelagen about 500 Saxony, about 250 Romanians and about 250 Roma.

Recent history and contemporary

After the fall of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu almost all Halvelagener Saxons left their home town and moved to Germany about.

The church organ was restored in Germany and then to the music conservatory in Cluj (Romanian: Cluj- Napoca, Hungarian Kolosvar ) passed. Of the three tower bells of the Saxon church tower Halvelagner the church leadership was sold in the 1990s, a bell at a church in the Hungarian-speaking Székely area inside the Carpathian arc.

In 2005 lived in Halvelagen approximately 1,000 people, of whom about 500 Romanians, 500 Roma and 4 axes.