Târgu Mureș 7.08

Târgu Mureș is the seat of Mureș County in the north-central part of Romania. It is the 16th largest Romanian city, with 134,290 inhabitants.Names and etymologyThe current Romanian name of the city, Târgu Mureș, is the equivalent with the Hungarian Marosvásárhely, both meaning "market on the Mureș (Maros) ". Târg means "market" in Romanian and vásárhely means "marketplace" in Hungarian. The Hungarian Marosvásárhely is sometimes shortened to Vásárhely in local colloquial Hungarian language.The first known written reference which records the name of the city is that of the jesuit priest Martinusz Szentivany whom, in his work Dissertatio Paralipomenonica Rerum Memorabilium Hungariae written in 1699 records the name as Asserculis by stating, in latin, Asserculis, hoc est Szekely Vasarhely, meaning, Asserculis, here is Szekely Vasarhely and provides the year 1230 for the reference. A second work of his, Curiesiera et Selectiera Variarum Scienetiomm Miscellanea dated 1702 makes mention of the same name.An other written reference of the city was in the Papal registry in Latin as Novum Forum Siculorum in 1332, and later as Sekulvasarhel (modern Hungarian: Székelyvásárhely), meaning "new market of the Székelys", in 1349. Greek traders called it "Agropolis". An other name for it was "Areopolis".In 1616, Gabriel Bethlen gave the name Marosvásárhely to the newly upgraded royal free city. The Romanian name for the city, Oșorhei was a phonetic derivation from Vásárhely while the German name for the town, Neumarkt am Mieresch (also shortened to Neumarkt or Marktstadt; in Transylvanian Saxon, Nai Mark or Nai Muark), can be translated as New Market