Szabolcs István Guttmann: I came to Sibiu in 1987 as an architect who had just qualified in Bucharest. In those days, under the Communist state, graduates were not free to take jobs just anywhere. Jobs were offered by the state and the applicants were selected on the basis of their university marks. I had chosen Sibiu because it was the closest to my native city of Cluj- Kolozsvár. The other consideration was that at that time-and sadly this is still true-Sibiu was the one city full of historic monuments where there were expert architects busy grappling with urban development problems. Two great Saxon architects were active in the city, both of whom also had a grounding in history: Paul Niedermaier, a specialist in the period from the twelfth to the sixteenth century and the only architect member of the Romanian Academy, and Hermann Fabini, who in 1983 published a history of Sibiu in the Middle Ages and that at a time when it was impossible to go ahead with any project that might be aimed at the conservation of historical towns. Right up to the present, there is no other town in Transylvania which has been as thoroughly catalogued as Sibiu in regard to its medieval architectural treasures. These two architects surveyed each and every house from cellar to rooftop and demonstrated Sibiu's unique architectural and urban characteristics. For me it was a challenge to be a young architect in a city where I was able to size up what is actually behind those books. I was astonished to have it impressed on me that it was not just a matter of architecture. Up until 1989, about 15 per cent of Sibiu's population were Saxons, among whom were artists, musicians and others engaged in the arts. Juliana Fabritius-Dancu, for example, had published albums on the Saxon fortified churches of Transylvania in the 1980's. Within a few years I became very enthusiastic about the city. Along with my Romanian colleagues I worked on drawing up idealistic plans for urban renewal. It helped that in 1987 Nicu Ceaus¸escu, son of the dictator, was put in charge of the city and the county. That put us in an exceptional position, and not just because we could buy more milk or cheese than elsewhere, but also because Nicu Ceaus,escu took the very interesting decision to commission the reconstruction of the old Rondella Theatre. So, while his father was demolishing and building over Bucharest, the son was reconstructing old buildings in Sibiu.

Which suggests that Nicu Ceaus¸escu helped the city.

So did the city's ordinary residents. Sibiu's citizens could tell exactly why they wanted to regain the theatre that had burned down in 1948 and had been rebuilt as a workers' club and cinema. When four decades later the issue was raised whether it should be renovated and possibly converted into a modern cinema or dismantled and slimmed down in order to widen the road, Hermann Fabini, who was the architect of the city's totally unprofessional estate management department, had the last word. He announced that he had information in his possession that would allow the theatre to be rebuilt. The county planning office commissioned us to do the plans and I was able to start work with three colleagues-Ion Bucur, a native of Sibiu and the architect most actively engaged with the old city, Radu Medrea, who went off to Paris in 1990, and Liviu Gligor, with whom I was at university and who likewise handled city affairs as if he were a local patriot.

You mean to say there wasn't one Saxon in your team?

No, all of the architects whom we worked with were Romanians. That in itself shows that the city was conceived on very sound lines. I was able to satisfy myself that it really is true that a city nurtures its inhabitants and they in turn, by representing that legacy, instruct those who come after them. Continual engagement brings its rewards. We were able to set about work with new energy, working together with many small architectural studios. Then around 1991-92 we were forced to realise that the city fathers were not interested in the restoration of the town.

When did it actually become possible to undertake ambitious projects in Sibiu?

When Klaus Johannis was elected mayor in 2000. One day he went on a walk with me around inner-city courtyards that were in serious danger of collapse. It was truly memorable for me because I realized that I could count on both the funding and the will to carry out the reconstruction of the Old Town in the four years to come. Serious work began in 2001. By then plans had been drawn up within the framework of an

overall city plan and a start was made on renovating the infrastructure. Meanwhile the Capital of Culture programme was agreed on at ministerial level in 2002. Nevertheless, in spite of approval by the powers-that-be Sibiu received no information from Bucharest during the next two years. The necessary documentation was completed for the deadline of February 2004 only because Johannis managed to mobilise the city. The architects were solidly behind the mayor.

Who had the idea of going for the European Capital of Culture programme?

The Ministry of Culture put on a UNESCO conference in Sibiu in 1998, but the city was anything but ready to host events at that sort of level then. When the Luxembourgers saw the city they almost fainted on the spot. The idea of twinning Luxembourg with Sibiu came from the Luxembourgers themselves. There is something like an eighty per cent overlap between the Saxon dialect of Transylvania and the Luxembourg dialect. Nowadays a special section of the Sibiu branch of the Romanian Academy, based in what is called the Luxembourg House, concerns itself with this. The Luxembourg Ministry of Culture pledged to fund the renovation of one building provided legal and other preconditions could be met. The city reverted ownership of the selected building at No. 16 Kleiner Ring to the Saxon Lutheran Church, and Luxembourg kept its word. Reconstruction started, only it turned out that not only did the house have serious subsidence problems, the retaining wall beside it was also in a parlous state, where the main street cuts over from the Lower Town to the Upper Town. Now, in that same house, one can discuss Transylvania's medieval culture in a café that is named after the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary (1387-1437). On the ground floor is a tourist information centre where the staff speaks at least five languages, on the first floor are offices for the functions that are being put on in 2007 and, on the second floor, there are rooms for those invited to the events. Through the Luxembourg House we maintain links with the West, while Luxembourg is able to provide support, for instance, to minorities subject to ethnic discrimination by presenting the issues that Franco-German rivalry has aroused historically. The city induced Luxembourg to make this investment, and Luxembourg cultural directors in their turn prompted this year-long programme.

Has any other assistance come from abroad?

The Germans have also invested in Sibiu, establishing an important social advice bureau. They are earmarking roughly the same amount for that programme as the Luxembourgers for the house on the Kleiner Ring.

Sibiu's Saxon heritage is now being recreated with a largely Romanian team and a great deal of foreign money. Do the city's 96 per cent Romanian inhabitants feel they have anything to do with this?

This is not just a matter of the physical environment. Not when values can be transmitted in the way that the Bach Choir does, with its concerts starting dead on time, almost to the minute. Some twothirds of the members are non-German, and yet they nonetheless operate at just as high a professional standard. Or take the rediscovery and documentation of Transylvanian musicians and musical traditions: Ursula and Kurt Philippi are both themselves Transylvanian Saxons. Kurt is in charge of music for the Lutheran diocese and in his free time trains the orchestra at the Brukenthal School. His wife Ursula is cantor at the Lutheran Stadtpfarrkirche, the parish church, one of several Saxon professional organists and also a teacher at the Academy of Music. She gives recitals around the world, from Tokyo to the USA, and every summer she manages to present a completely new programme in Sibiu. People around in Sibiu notice that the city stands for and passes on enduring verities. In short, it would be fair to say that respect for the Saxons has been extraordinarily important in the change. To the present day, not one of the German schools has closed, even though the position is slowly being reached where there are few ethnic German teachers and the majority of the pupils are children of Romanian families. Still, the radical decline in the number of Lutherans has been halted. A new problem are the many children of mixed marriages who are no longer fluent in German. As I see it, our task as architects is to furnish an appropriate milieu for values and people.