History of the city
Reghin was first mentioned in documents from 1228, when
the place was named Regun in connection with a donation of land, in a diploma issued by King Andrew II of Hungary. In 1350 the town gained the right to hold weekly fairs.
After the first colonization of German population, brought from Bavaria by the Hungarian kings in Reghin and its surroundings, in 1427 Reghin is mentioned as a market place (op- pidum). A defining role in the town’s development was played by its guilds, documented at the beginning of the 15th century.
From an urban point of view, the centre of the town does not develop around the Evangelical Church, but in the area of the market place, where traders’ shops were located.
On January 1, 1661, within the Transylvanian Dieta at Reghin, Ioan Kemény is elected prince of Transylvania. An event with a major impact on the city was the Revolution of 1848-49 during which it was burned. The restoration was achieved primarily through the efforts of the local population, but also with the support of the communities from the big Saxon cities and the Imperial Court, to whom the city was faithful during the Revolution.
Restored after the disasters from the Revolutionary period, Reghin becomes again an important centre, being raised to the rank of free city in 1863 with the right to send deputies to the Transylvanian Dieta.
In 1853 a boat company was founded in Reghin, connected to Mureş and Gurghiu rivers: within short time, the first mechanized timber factories were erected.
The boat company was (in terms of its size) the most important business in Sax- on Reghin at that time, being the strongest boat company in Austro-Hungary until 1908.
Reghin gradually developed and, as a result of government initiatives, the first major banks, such as the Mureşeana Bank (1885) and the Cerbul People Bank (1912), as well as a large number of private companies were established.
In the interwar period, Reghin became a good model of interethnic and cultural coexistence of the four Hungarian, German, Romanian and Jewish ethnic groups.
After the outbreak of the Second World War and the bombing of the Mociar airport in 1944, as a result of the westward advance of the Anti Hitler front, the Germans in Reghin left the town.
The migration of the Saxon community to the European West continued for half a century. Nowadays Reghin is known as the city of violins. The violin makers use the famous resonance wood of the Călimani and Gurghiu Mountains, and the product of their work makes itself heard all over the world.
