Brașov

People have lived on the site since the Neolithic, and Dacian citadels once stood on the hills around Brașov. The medieval city was shaped by the Transylvanian Saxons, settlers invited by the Hungarian kings. In 1211 King Andrew II sent the Teutonic Knights to fortify the Bârsa land, the Burzenland; they were expelled by 1225, but their colonists stayed and built three settlements, including Corona around the site of the Black Church. The name Kronstadt, the City of the Crown, may recall the crown on the city's old arms.

Standing where trade routes between the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe met, and holding tax privileges, the Saxon merchants grew rich. Guilds kept towers of the city walls, and Romanians from the Șchei quarter were barred from living inside them, using a single gate of their own. In 1689 a great fire destroyed almost the whole walled city, and rebuilding took decades. Șchei, meanwhile, became a centre of Romanian culture: in 1838 its people founded the first Romanian-language newspaper, Gazeta Transilvaniei, and the first Romanian institutions of higher education.

The city changed hands briefly in 1916, when the Romanian army held it for six weeks, and became part of Romania in 1918. Many ethnic Germans were deported to the Soviet Union at the end of the Second World War, and most of the rest later emigrated. From 1950 to 1960 the city was officially called Orașul Stalin. Heavy industry drew workers from across the country, and in 1987 a workers' strike against Ceaușescu's regime was brutally repressed. Parts of the walls have since been restored, and the city now ranks second only to Bucharest for tourist arrivals.

Brașov is where Romania's national anthem was first sung, and Romanians see the Șchei quarter as one of the cradles of their written culture — the First Romanian School taught in Romanian from 1583, and the old church of St Nicholas received gifts from more than thirty princes of Moldavia and Wallachia. Its most famous custom is the Junii, seven groups of young and older men of Șchei and old Brașov who ride and parade in costume in spring, a custom that, according to some sources, combines pre-Christian and Christian practices.

The Saxon heritage remains visible in the Black Church, in the walls and in a school named after the reformer Johannes Honterus, while a Hungarian minority has its own school and churches. The city's arts life includes the Sică Alexandrescu Theatre and the Golden Stag Festival, an international song contest first held in 1968 and revived in 2018 after an eight-year gap, whose stage has seen Josephine Baker, Dalida and Christina Aguilera.

Sport is part of everyday life, helped by the mountains: Poiana Brașov is Romania's most popular ski resort, the city hosted the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in 2013 and bid for the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics, and it has an Olympic ice rink, running races on the surrounding trails and a long football history.

At the 2021 census Brașov had 237,589 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city in Romania, and about 372,000 lived in its metropolitan area. About 91 per cent of residents are Romanians and about 7 per cent Hungarians, with a small Saxon community.

The city's industry began between the wars with the IAR aircraft works, which became the Tractorul tractor factory, and was greatly expanded under communism. Much of the tractor plant was demolished in 2013–14 for housing, a shopping centre and parks, but Brașov still makes trucks, hydraulic transmissions, car parts, ball bearings, tools and furniture, and has a large brewery. Transilvania University and several other universities bring students, and the old town and Poiana Brașov draw many tourists.

Most people live in the districts of flats north and east of the old town and commute by bus; the trams were withdrawn in 2006. Weekends take families up to Poiana Brașov or onto the trails of Tâmpa and the surrounding hills, and the airport, opened in 2023, has gained new routes since. Bears from the surrounding forests sometimes wander into the outer districts.

Brașov's cooking is Transylvanian, mixing Romanian, Hungarian and Saxon traditions. Ciorbă, the sour soup, opens many meals, and sarmale, cabbage leaves rolled round minced meat and rice, are cooked in Transylvania with smoked pig's trotters or pork skin placed between the rolls. Mămăligă, cornmeal mush, comes with stews such as tochitură, and bulz is mămăligă baked with cheese, often eaten with sour cream.

The Székely kürtőskalács, known in Romanian as cozonac secuiesc, is a spit cake of sweet dough rolled in sugar and basted with melted butter as it roasts. Papanași, doughnuts of sweet cheese, eggs and semolina, are served with jam and sour cream, and mici, grilled rolls of spiced minced meat, are most associated with outdoor grilling.

Drinks reflect the region: pălincă, a strong double-distilled fruit brandy made in Transylvania, and țuică from plums are offered as aperitifs, and the city has a large brewery. Old-town restaurants cluster on Council Square and Republicii street, while Piața Astra sells farm produce to residents.