DEVA, Romania

Deva (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈdeva] ( listen); Hungarian: Déva, Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈdeːvɒ];

German: Diemrich, Schlossberg, Denburg; Latin: Sargetia; Turkish: Deve, Devevar)[3] is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, on the left
bank of the Mureș River. It is the capital of Hunedoara County.

Its name was first recorded in 1269 as castrum Dewa. The origin of the name gave rise to controversy. It is considered that the name comes from the
ancient Dacian word dava, meaning "fortress" (as in Pelendava, Piroboridava, or Zargidava). Other theories trace the name to a Roman Legion, the Legio II
Augusta, transferred to Deva from Castrum Deva, now Chester (Deva Victrix) in Britain. János András Vistai assume the name is of old Turkic origin from the
name Gyeücsa.[4] Others assert that the name is probably of Slavic origin where Deva or Devín means "girl" or "maiden".[5] (A similar case exists
in Slovakian for the Devín Castle, located at the confluence of the Danube and Great Morava, at the site of the former town of Devín.)

Additionally, it is possible the name Deva was derived from the reconstructed proto-Indo-European dhewa ("settlement").

On medieval maps Deva appears as: Dewan (first mention), Deva, or later Diemrich.

Documentary evidence of the city's existence first appeared in 1269 when Stephen V, King of Hungary and Duke of Transilvania, mentioned "the royal castle
of Deva" in a privilege-grant for the Count Chyl of Kelling (Romanian: comitele Chyl din Câlnic).[6] Partially destroyed by the Ottoman Turks in 1550, it was
afterward rebuilt and the fortress extended. In 1621 Prince Gabriel Bethlen transformed and extended the Magna Curia Palace (also known as the Bethlen
Castle) in Renaissance style.

In 1711–1712, Deva was settled by a group of Roman Catholic Bulgarian merchant refugees from the unsuccessful anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising of
1688. The refugees were originally mostly from Chiprovtsi and Zhelezna, though also from the neighbouring Kopilovtsi and Klisura.[7][8] However, the refugees
came to Deva from Wallachia and from Alvinc (now Vinţu de Jos, Romania), where a similar colony had been established in 1700.[9]

They numbered in 1716[10] 51 families and three Franciscan friars, established their own neighbourhood, which was known to the locals as Greci ("Greeks",
i.e. "merchants"). Their influence over local affairs caused Deva to be officially called a "Bulgarian town" for a short period, even though the maximum
population of the colony was 71 families in 1721.[10] The Bulgarians received royal privileges of the Austrian crown along with their permission to settle and
their acquisition of land and property. The construction of Deva's Franciscan friary commenced in 1724 with the funding and efforts of its Bulgarian
population, so that the monastery was commonly known as the Bulgarian Monastery. However, the Great Plague of 1738 and the gradual assimilation of the
Deva Bulgarians into other ethnicities of Transylvania prevented the colony from growing and by the late 19th century the Bulgarian ethnic element in the
town had disappeared completely.