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People from the Rhine and Mosel region (today’s Luxembourg and western Germany) had settled in Sebeș. The name “Transylvanian Saxons” is not accurate, because the chancellery of the Hungarian King named all German tribes, Saxons. The Sebeș Germans were actually Rheinfranken, Ripuarian Franks. Saxon Sebeș was one of the most important medieval Transylvanian cities. It became one of the seven fortresses which formed Siebenbürgen (Saxon name for Transylvania meaning “seven fortresses”).
The oldest historical documents attesting the existence of Sebeș date from 1150 and they refer to it at Malembach. The modern German name of the city is Mühlbach (mill creek).
In 1242 the Mongol invasion destroyed the city and the townspeople were forced to start the restoration works. The XIVth century implied development and thus Sebeș was ranked 3rd most important commercial Saxon city. A royal document from 1387 grants the city the right to erect walls, although their construction began before the middle of the XIVth century. Sebeș becomes the first Transylvanian city completely surrounded by brick walls, despite its undersized area. The Ottoman attach in 1438 find Sebeș protected by a not very thick ring of walls, with towers and two gates.
In 1485 King Matthias Corvinus grants the city a series of privileges in order to complete the fortifications. The most important modifications are undertaken inside the church, where the wall is heightened. Smaller modification, finished in the first years of the XVIth century are undergone by the exterior of the church. The fortress remains a modest one, comprising 7-8 towers (of which one is an inside tower) and 2 gates with barbicans. The last traces of the water moat surrounding the city were transformed in the late XIXth century into the town lake.
After the plague from 1738 the town’s population decreased significantly but the second wave of German colonists from Baden-Durlach in 1748 and Hanau in 1770 saved this city.
The Transylvanian Diet convened in Sebeș in 1556 and 1600. The Zapolya House, the meeting place of the Diet, is now a museum.
[Source: Wikipedia.org]
The Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Gothic edifice built between the XIIIth and XIVth century, later on restored in Renaissance style.
