a district in central Rumania, occupying the Transylvanian Plateau and the northern slopes of the Southern Carpathians. Area, 5,400 sq km. Population, 457,000 (1974). The administrative center is the city of Sibiu. Industry in Sibiu District accounts for 3.5 percent of the country’s gross industrial output; the chief branches are machine building (40 percent of the district’s gross output), textile production (8.6 percent), and food processing (13.5 percent). The district also has enterprises of the nonferrous metallurgical, leather and footwear, clothing, • chemical, woodworking, glass, porcelain and faience, building-materials, and printing industries. Agriculture accounts for 1.3 percent of the country’s gross output; the district specializes in the cultivation of wheat, corn, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, flax, and hemp. Fruits are grown in the foothills; grapes are cultivated in the Tîrnava Mare River valley. Livestock is raised on the natural meadows and pastures, which cover 33 percent of the district’s territory.
a city in central Rumania, on the Cibin River, a tributary of the Olt River, near where the Cibin cuts through the Southern Carpathians. Administrative center of Sibiu District. Population, 129,000 (1974). Sibiu is one of Rumania’s industrial centers and transportation junctions. Machine building is a major industry, producing equipment for the chemical, metallurgical, mining, and light industries, automobile parts, and measuring instruments. The textile industry produces fabrics, carpets, and clothing, including knitwear, and the food industry includes meat, dairy, and confectionery enterprises and enterprises for the production of flour, wine, and vodka. There are also leather and footwear, sawmilling, furniture, cosmetics, and printing enterprises. Sibiu is a tourist site.
Medieval buildings have been preserved in the center of the city, including remains of city fortifications (13th to 17th centuries), the Gothic Hospital Church (1292) and Evangelical Church (1350 to early 16th century), and private houses (14th to 16th centuries). Palaces with portals in the Renaissance style (16th century) are located on Republic Square, as are several baroque structures, including the tower of the town hall (completed 1750). a church (1726–38), and the Brukenthal Palace (1780–85; now the Brukenthal Museum). Since the late 1940’s, new residential areas have been under construction, including Terezian and Hipodrom, as well as the areas along Ştefan cel Mare and Dumbrăva streets and Gheorghe-Gheorghiu-Dej Boulevard.