(; , archaic , Transylvanian Saxon: , ) is the capital city of Bistrița-Năsăud County, in northern Transylvania, Romania. It is situated on the Bistrița River. The city has a population of 78,877 inhabitants (2021) and administers six villages: (; ), (; ), (; ), (; ), (until 1950 ; ; ) and (; ).
Etymology
The town was named after the River, whose name comes from the Slavic word meaning 'fast-moving water'.
History
The earliest sign of settlement in the area of is in Neolithic remains. The Turkic Pechenegs settled the area in 12th century following attacks of the Cumans. Transylvanian Saxons settled the area in 1206 and called the region . A large part of settlers were fugitives, convicts, and poor people looking for lands and opportunities. The destruction of ("Market Nösen") under the Mongols of central Europe is described in a document from 1241. The city was then called . Situated on several trade routes, became a flourishing medieval trading post.
became a free royal town in 1330. In 1353, King Louis I of Hungary granted the town the right to organize an annual 15-day fair on Saint Bartholomew day, as well as a seal containing the coat of arms of an ostrich with a horseshoe in its beak. The town developed markets throughout Moldavia, and its craftsmen travelled extensively. It was given the right to be surrounded by defensive walls in 1409. In 1465, the city's fortifications had 18 defensive towers and bastions defended by the local guilds. It was also defended by a , or fortified church. In 1713 the Romanian population was expelled by the Saxon magistrates, but they returned later. The town was badly damaged by fire five times between 1836 and 1850. The church suffered from fire in 1857, when the tower's roof and the bells were destroyed. The roof was rebuilt after several years. Fires in the nineteenth century also destroyed much of the city's medieval citadel.
A Jewish community developed in after the prohibition on Jewish settlement there was lifted in 1848, organizing itself in the 1860s. The synagogue, consecrated in 1893, is among Transylvania's largest and most impressive. The community was Orthodox with a strong Hasidic section, but there were also Jews who adopted German and Hungarian culture. A Zionist youth organization, , was founded in in 1901 by Nissan Kahan, who corresponded with Theodor Herzl and there was significant support for the Zionist movement in the town between the two world wars. A large yeshivah flourished under the direction of the rabbi of , Solomon Zalman Ullmann, between 1924 and 1942. During World War I, 138 Jews were conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army; 12 were killed in action.
The city was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918. On December 1 that year, Transylvania united with Romania, and Romanian Army troops entered on December 5. In 1925, Bistrița became the capital of Năsăud County.
World War II
In the wake of the Second Vienna Award (1940), the city reverted to the Kingdom of Hungary. During the war, the Hungarian authorities deported several dozen Jewish families in 1941 from to Kamenets-Podolski in the Galician area of occupied Ukraine, where they were killed by Hungarian soldiers. The Jews of , as elsewhere in Hungary, were subjected to restrictions, and Jewish men of military age were drafted for forced labor service. In May 1944, the Jewish population was forced into the Bistrița ghetto, set up at Stamboli Farm, about two miles from the city. The ghetto consisted of a number of barracks and pigsties. At its peak, the ghetto held close to 6,000 Jews, including those brought in from the neighboring communities in Beszterce-Naszód County. Among these were the Jews of , , , , , , , , , and . The ghetto was liquidated with the deportation of its inhabitants to in two transports on June 2 and 6, 1944.
After King Michael's Coup of August 1944, Romania switched sides to the Allies. By October of that year, Romanian and Soviet troops gained control of all of Northern Transylvania, which was reintegrated into Romania in March 1945. In 1950, Bistrița became the seat of ; in 1952, the region was dissolved and the city became the seat of Bistrița raion (part of Cluj Region) until 1968.
Recent events
On June 11, 2008, the tower and roof of the church caught fire when three children who went to steal copper set it on fire while playing. The main part of the church suffered only slight damage, the interior remaining intact. It is speculated that both of the tower's bells, one dating from the 15th century, the other from the 17th, may have melted in the blaze.
Climate
Due to its modest elevation, has one of the coldest climates in Romania.