Cincu

For the river in Brașov County, seeCincu (river).

Cincu
Commune
Coat of arms
Location within the county
Cincu Location in Romania
Coordinates:45°55′N24°48′E
Country	Romania
County	Brașov
Government
• Mayor(2020–2024)	Sorin-Aurel Suciu (PNL)
Area	117.19 km2(45.25 sq mi)
Elevation	474 m (1,555 ft)
Population (2021-12-01)	1,681
• Density	14/km2(37/sq mi)
Time zone	EET/EEST(UTC+2/+3)
Postal code	507045
Area code	+40 x59
Vehicle reg.	BV
Website	wwwunacincu.ro

Cincu(German:Großschenk;Transylvanian Saxon:Schoink;Hungarian:Nagysink) is a commune inBrașov County,Transylvania,Romania.It is composed of two villages, Cincu and Toarcla (Tarteln;Kisprázsmár). Each of these has afortified church.

Geography

The commune is located in the northwestern part of the county, on the border withSibiu County.It lies in the southern reaches of theTransylvanian Plateau,on the banks of the riversCincuandPârâul Nou,both right tributaries of the riverOlt.The nearest city isFăgăraș,some 21 km (13 mi) away; the county capital,Brașov,is 87 km (54 mi) to the southeast, while the city ofSibiuis 77 km (48 mi) to the west.

The commune is crossed bycounty roadDJ105, which runs from nearbyVoilatoAgnita,20 km (12 mi) to the northwest, and DJ105A, which runs from nearbyBruiutoRupea,55 km (34 mi) to the northeast.

History

Medieval Evangelical Lutheran Transylvanian Saxon Cincu fortified church

Cincu was first mentioned in a document of 1329 asSchenck,a word connected toSchenke,meaning "tavern" in German. The village was founded in the mid-12th century by some 30 families of German settlers from theRhinelandarea in present-dayGermany.There were 64 families in 1488, 70 in 1532, and 344 in 1729. Some 215 individuals were settled there by theHabsburgsin 1753. In 1850, there were 2,635 inhabitants. In 1930, there were 2,449, of whom 1,112 wereTransylvanian Saxons.In 1956, the population stood at 2,232.

Sketch depicting the plan of the medieval Evangelical Lutheran Transylvanian Saxon fortified church in Cincu.

The Saxons' territory was divided into "seats"; among the oldest was theSchenk Seat,with its capital at Cincu. It included 22 localities, among them the current town ofAgnita.Cincu has had its own coat of arms since 1448 and was declared a market town in 1474.

In 1600, its citadel was burned by the troops ofMichael the Brave.Historically, the local economy was dominated by agriculture and by craft production organized into guilds for joiners, furriers, harness makers, locksmiths, carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, cobblers, coopers, wheelwrights, and bricklayers.

The town hall was established in 1804. A significant number of inhabitants began to emigrate to the United States in the 1890s, and the Saxons started to leave en masse in the 1950s. In 1989, 386 Saxons were left; this fell to 136 in 1992, 109 in 1994, and 70 in 2000.The painterFritz Schullerusmoved to a house in Cincu in 1895, dying there three years later.

Toarcla Fortified Church

Toarcla is mentioned inJohannes Honter's cosmography text. It appears on the oldest map ofTransylvania,from 1532. The Saxon population left Toarcla as well, so that there were some 20 individuals from the community left by the early 2000s.

Cincu was the seat of the Nagysink District ofNagy-Küküllő County,an administrative county (comitatus) of theKingdom of Hungary.AfterWorld War I,as a result of theHungarian–Romanian Warand theTreaty of Trianon,the commune became part ofFăgăraș County,in theKingdom of Romania.Between 1950 and 1952, Cincu fell within theSibiu RegionofCommunist Romania;it was reassigned to theStalin Regionin 1952 (renamed Brașov Region in 1960), and finally became part of Brașov County in 1968.

Demographics

At the2011 census,the commune had 1,587 inhabitants, of which 79.14% were ethnicRomanians,10.84%Roma,3.4%Hungarians,and 3.34%Germans.At the2021 census,Cincu had a population of 1,681; of those, 78.05% were Romanians, 9.22% Roma, 2.8% Germans, and 2.2% Hungarians.

Joint Training Center

Main article:Cincu Training Center

Soldiers with the116th Cavalry Brigade Combat TeamfromOntario, Oregonexercise at the Combat Training Center in Cincu, 2016

AB1 Centaurocolumn of theItalian Army'sNizza Cavalleriaregiment in Cincu, 2019

TheRomanian Land Forcesoperate a Combat Training Center in Cincu, whereNATOtroops have been training as part of theNATO Enhanced Forward Presence.The facility is undergoing a massive expansion in the wake of the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,as the military alliance is shifting its center of gravity from theMihail Kogălniceanu Air Basenear theBlack Sea,to Cincu, near the exact geographical center of Romania.

See also

• Villages with fortified churches in Transylvania