SEBES

town, Alba judet (county), west-central Romania. It lies in the valley of the Sebes River, on a major Romanian highway. The site had Neolithic and Daco-Roman settlements before Sebes was refounded in the 12th century by German settlers. Sebes was an important town in medieval Transylvania. By the 14th century it had survived a Tatar sacking and had been refortified, but in 1438 it fell to the Turks. The Evangelical church in Sebes is a monumental work of Romanesque and Gothic architecture completed over a period of two centuries. The Zpolya House, now containing a district museum, is where the Diet of Transylvania was summoned in 1556 and 1600. Modern Sebes is an industrial town, with leather, textile, and wood industries. Pop. (1992 prelim.) 29,713.