The original inhabitants, who have emigrated, are not the ones now restoring the bastions, churches and medieval houses of old Sibiu but the more recently established Romanian population. This new attitude to Transylvania's old values is reassuring, especially when one thinks of the depredations of the Communist era. Then the majority community did everything within its power to get rid of anything that was a reminder of Transylvania's other nations. I am reminded of an antique Cretan example. In Gortyn the Greeks inscribed their law code on large slabs of marble which were set out in the main square. The Roman emperor Trajan reused stones from such an inscription-bearing wall when he had the Roman theatre-the Odeon-rebuilt after it was destroyed by an earthquake. In other words, the new power in the land did not destroy the values of the defeated people but incorporated them into their own culture. Or is that a forced parallel?

Not in the least! Much the same thing happened many times over in Transylvania, though of course one has to rule out the Communist era. But take 1944, when German troops packed the Saxons of northern Transylvania onto trains and resettled them in Austria and Germany. The churches in the villages were sold off to the Eastern Orthodox Church, and that is why the buildings are still standing today. The Romanian community added an iconostasis, put their own cross on the steeple and thereafter regarded the church as their own. So those buildings survived. They are not museums, they haven't been expertly restored, nor will they be, because they're in use; they have another function. That's fine by me, as I'm not a great believer in conservation-one can't place everything under a bell jar. The situation has changed since 1989, of course, because no new owners have been found for the Saxon villages as they are being rapidly abandoned. The Romanians there can't take everything over-all the more so as most of the Eastern Orthodox believers now have their own churches. Sadly, a resettled community cannot keep a growing number of medieval Saxon churches in a good state of repair, so these are slowly crumbling and becoming little more than stone quarries. But then history itself is nothing other than a huge quarry. After all, the inhabitants of the village of Gârbova (Urwegen) incorporated stones from Roman times into their buildings: they made use of what was already to hand, that was their foundation. The only question is how intentional or expedient the dismantling of those old churches was. Is it right to expect that a form of reverence will be shown towards them? Because if they figure as merely a decorative element in the landscape, then that is debatable. I will mention just one example, that of Feldioara˘ (Marienburg or Földvár) near Bras¸ov. The ruins still stand today, but only because it was under those walls that Petru Rares¸, the prince of Moldavia, is reputed to have won a battle against Habsburg forces in 1529. As the myth was embroidered further, Feldioara˘ was named Rares¸'s castle; however, even a historical myth is unable to protect ruins.

So it's just a matter of whether the history of those stones survives?

Stones, whether they be Roman or Transylvanian Saxon, can tell many stories- obviously to anyone who pays attention to them... Let me reformulate the question: How does a person relate to a town that is structurally and culturally foreign to him? From that perspective, I think that something quite new is happening in Sibiu. The restoration and renovation work is giving employment to a great many people, giving them a livelihood. A new kind of consciousness is emerging with the ethnic Romanian majority sticking up for the city, even though they think of it not as Romanian but Transylvanian. They recognise that others built it, that others were living there before them, though that

isn't quite so simple as all that because there are still people who would like to see it as being of Romanian origin. The signposts are instructive in that respect: they are marked Sibiu-Hermannstadt, even though according to the laws currently in force such bilingual signposts can only be set up where a minority makes up more than twenty per cent of the population. I see that as symbolic of a new kind of tolerant, relaxed way of thinking. It means that the inhabitants have accepted the city, along with a history that is in fact alien to them.

Can we hope for a kind of multicultural civic identity?

To be sure. Indeed, one can even speak of an awareness of a Transylvanian identity. Nowadays that notion is even found in the Romanian press, even if with simplified generalities, such as the idea that Transylvanians are more deliberate, franker, more highly principled. Not long ago I read in a Romanian newspaper that cheese vendors from Oltenia wear hats in the style of the village of Sa˘lis¸te because customers only trust produce from Transylvania. There are cases where prejudices can be positive!

What do you think the chances are that Sibiu will be able to go on developing after 2007?

Let's assume that grey, mundane reality followed on the wedding at Cana-that's how it will be in Sibiu also. When the countless celebrations of the jubilee year are over there will be a return to everyday life, and no doubt signs of a hangover will also appear. Nevertheless, the whole process involved in the Cultural Capital project has meant a huge boost to the entire area, especially from an economic point of view. The airport has been modernised, bypasses have been constructed, the university has been expanded. Besides that, Johannis, the Saxon mayor, has demonstrated that chances for development are much better with an even-handed leadership that is not corrupt.

Do you believe that it is Sibiu's genius loci that has determined and alters the perceptions of its inhabitants?

People are subject to a host of influences in the course of their lives. The citizens of Sibiu are at present subject to a great many positive influences, thanks to which they are proud of their town irrespective of their ethnic origins. Would it be worth giving that up? I don't know what the point of that would be. More than that, the positive example has also inspired other communities. Mayor Johannis's success has led the ethnic Romanian majority in two other towns in Sibiu County-Cisna˘die (Heltau or Nagydisznód) and Medias¸-to likewise elect ethnic Saxon mayors.

What do the Transylvanian Saxons now living in Germany make of this honoured status?

They are very enthusiastic. Articles about it appear in every issue of Siebenbürgische Zeitung, which is published in Munich. I term the phenomenon a non-territorial pride, a borderless local patriotism. They refer to the Saxon bishop as 'our bishop' and the mayors as 'our mayors', which is pretty odd when you bear in mind that most of these people left the region years ago. But then that, too, is a positive phenomenon, because the Saxons that live in Munich also gain an enhanced sense of their Saxon identity. When the Western press was going on about the street kids and corruption in Romania, people tended to deny their identity. Now I can say with great pride that I come from a European Capital of Culture.