Făgăraș

Făgăraș (Romanian pronunciation: [fəɡəˈraʃ]; German: Fogarasch, Fugreschmarkt, Hungarian: Fogaras) is a city in central Romania, located in Brașov County. It lies on the Olt River and has a population of 28,330 as of 2011.

Romanians now form 91.3% of the population following Saxon and Hungarian emigration, although the city's diverse background is still apparent.

Name

According to linguist Iorgu Iordan, the name of the town is a Romanian diminutive of collective noun *făgar ("beech forest"), derived from fag, "beech tree".

Another source of the name is alleged to derive from the Hungarian language word for "partridge" (fogor). A more plausible explanation is that the name is given by Fogaras river coming from the Pecheneg "Fagar šu", which means ash water. Another source of the name is given by folk etymology to be Hungarian, as the rendering of "wood" (fa) and "money" (garas), with legends stating that money made of wood had been used to pay the peasants who built the fortress (Făgăraș Citadel) around 1310.