Abrud ( la, Abruttus;Ștefan Pascu: A History of Transylvania, Dorset Press, 1990, , hu, Abrudbánya; german: Großschlatten) is a town in the north-western part of Alba County, Transylvania, Romania, located on the river
Abrud
Abrud ( la, Abruttus;Ștefan Pascu: A History of Transylvania, Dorset Press, 1990, , hu, Abrudbánya; german: Großschlatten) is a town in the north-western part of Alba County, Transylvania, Romania, located on the river Abrud. It administer ...
. It administers three villages: Abrud-Sat (''Abrudfalva''), Gura Cornei (''Szarvaspataktorka'') and Soharu (''Szuhár'').
Population
According to the census from 2011 there was a total population of 4,944 people living in this commune. Of this population, 96.66% are ethnic Romanians, 0.86% are ethnic Hungarians and 0.53% ethnic
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
.
Name
Although first recorded only in 1271 in the form ''terra Obruth'', the name of the town might have derived from a supposed (not attested) Dacian word for gold, ''*obrud''. The town's modern name reflects a characteristic vowel shift (from ''o'' to ''a'') of the medieval Hungarian language.
History
Antiquity
The Romans erected a small fortification here in the 2nd century AD. It was part of the defence system of the gold mines nearby, in "Alburnus Maior" (nowadays, Roșia Montană), but it was abandoned in the 3rd century.
Middle Ages
Abrud was first recorded in 1271 in as ''terra Obruth''. It gained town status in 1427.
18th-century revolts
In 1727, the leaders of a revolt gained control of the town. Another
serf
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...
s' revolt began in the area in 1784 with Horea, Cloșca and Crișan as leaders fighting the Austrian Imperial forces. Abrud was captured by the uprising's members on 6 November, before the revolt was crushed by the Austrian army.
1848 revolution
During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, negotiations took place in Abrud between the leaders of the Romanian peasants, led by
Avram Iancu
Avram Iancu (; hu, Janku Ábrahám; 1824 – September 10, 1872) was a Transylvanian Romanian lawyer who played an important role in the local chapter of the Austrian Empire Revolutions of 1848–1849. He was especially active in the Țara Mo ...
and Ion Dragoș, the envoy of
Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (, hu, udvardi és kossuthfalvi Kossuth Lajos, sk, Ľudovít Košút, anglicised as Louis Kossuth; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, poli ...
, deputy of Bihar County in the Parliament of Budapest, regarding the conciliation of the Romanian and Hungarian revolutionary forces. On May 6, in violation of the negotiated armistice, Major
Imre Hatvani
Imre is a Hungarian language, Hungarian masculine first name, which is also in Estonian language, Estonian use, where the corresponding name day is 10 April. It has been suggested that it relates to the name Emeric, Emmerich (name), Emmerich or H ...
conducted a one-way action without any compliance by attacking and occupying Abrud which triggered the Abrud massacre. Hatvani embarked also on unnecessary killings, hanged Romanian lawyer
Ioan Buteanu
Ioan Buteanu (1821–23 May 1849) was a leader of the Transylvanian Romanian Revolutionaries in 1848 and a prefect of Zaránd County between 1848 and 1849.
Early life and activity
Ioan Buteanu was born in 1821 to a noble family. His birthpl ...
, while his drunken soldiers massacred prefect
Petru Dobra Petru is a given name, and may refer to:
* Petru I of Moldavia (Petru Mușat, 1375–1391), ruler of Moldavia
* Petru Aron (died 1467), ruler of Moldavia
* Petru Bălan (born 1976), Romanian rugby union footballer
* Petru Cărare (1935–2019), wri ...
. In the next two weeks 88 Romanians were killed in the central square, and around 2,500 Hungarians were killed in revenge by Iancu's army in Abrud and in Roșia Montană; Dragoș was also killed, being considered a traitor. The escalated conflict could not be settled, Abrud was conquered and lost several times by the Hungarian troops, until May 18 when they retreated to Arad.
Natives
*
Ovidiu Bic
Ovidiu Alexandru Bic (; born 23 February 1994) is a Romanian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Universitatea Cluj.
Club career
On 5 January 2018, Bic signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with CS Universitatea Craiova.
Hon ...
*
Alexandru Ciura Alexandru Ciura (15 November 1876 – 2 March 1936) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian journalist, short story writer and priest.
Born in Abrud, Ciura was descended from a long line of Greek-Catholic priests in the Țara Moților region of ...
*
Ion Hebedeanu
Ion Hebedeanu (born 29 July 1925) is a Romanian cross-country skier who competed in the 1950s. He finished 32nd in the 50 km event at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo. He was born in Abrud
Abrud ( la, Abruttus;Ștefan Pascu: A History of Tr ...
Alexandru Sterca-Șuluțiu
Alexandru Sterca-Șuluțiu, also called Alexandru Sterca-Șuluțiu de Cărpiniș (February 15, 1794 – September 7, 1867), was an ethnic Romanian Eastern Catholic cleric in Imperial Austrian Transylvania, and the Metropolitan of the Transy ...
*
Ioan Sterca-Șuluțiu Ioan Sterca-Șuluțiu (1796–1858) was an ethnic Romanian bureaucrat in the administration of Imperial Austrian Transylvania, owner of gold mines at Abrud, and the brother of Greek-Catholic Metropolitan Alexandru Sterca-Șuluțiu. He was t ...
*
Nick Stuart
Nick Stuart (April 10, 1904 – April 7, 1973) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American actor and bandleader. His career spanned five decades, during which he appeared in over 50 films, more than half of them features, as well as film shorts, ser ...