HaÃÂeg (; ; ) is a town in Hunedoara County, Romania with a population of 8,793 as of 2021. Three villages are administered by the town: NÃÂlaÃÂvad (Nalácvád), SilvaÃÂu de Jos (Alsószilvás), and SilvaÃÂu de Sus (Felsà Âszilvás). It is situated in the southwestern reaches of the historical region of Transylvania.
The town is the center of the ethnocultural and historical region of ÃÂara HaÃÂegului. It lies at an altitude of , on the banks of the Râul Galben. HaÃÂeg is located in the south-central part of Hunedoara County, south of the county seat, Deva. HaÃÂeg Island, a large island that existed in the Tethys Ocean during the late Cretaceous period and the giant pterosaur that lived on the island, Hatzegopteryx are named after the town.
HaÃÂeg is mentioned for the first time in the Diploma of the Joannites of 1247 as a possession of Vlach voivode Litovoi, granted from King Béla IV of Hungary. In 1360 it is mentioned as the seat of a Romanian district.
In 1765, while part of the Habsburg controlled Principality of Transylvania, the settlement was completely militarised and integrated into the Second Border Company of the First Border Regiment from Orlat, until 1851, when that unit was disbanded.
Prior to WWII, HaÃÂeg was home to a thriving Jewish community comprising both Ashkenazi and Sephardim Jews, and featured at least one synagogue. During the Second World War, antisemitic policies of the Antonescu dictatorship resulted in the confiscation of Jewish properties, forced labour and extortion of the Jewish communities.
In 1940, all 600 of the Jewish residents of HaÃÂeg were rounded up and housed in one location, and all of their possessions were confiscated. By the end of World War II, only 30 Jewish residents remained.
ÃÂara HaÃÂegului (the HaÃÂeg Country) is the region around the town of HaÃÂeg. The fossils found in the HaÃÂeg area span over 300 million years of Earth's geologic history, showing tropical coral reefs and volcanic island in the Tethys Sea, dinosaurs, primitive mammals, birds, and Pterosaurs (such as Hatzegopteryx, which was named for the region).
HaÃÂeg Island was an island during the Cretaceous Period where a dwarf species of sauropod dinosaur, Magyarosaurus dacus, lived until their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. Baron Franz Nopcsa published articles about these Mesozoic-era archosaurs on HaÃÂeg Island. His studies led to his theory of insular dwarfism, the notion that "limited resources" on small islands can lead to a downsizing of the indigenous vertebrate animals.
Since 2015 the area has been an UNESCO Global Geopark.
According to the first ethnic census of 1850, the town had 1,194 inhabitants, 915 of them being Romanians, 92 Roma, 77 Hungarians, 62 Germans (more specifically Transylvanian Saxons), and 48 of other ethnicities. According to the 2011 census, HaÃÂeg had 9,685 inhabitants, of which 93.15% were Romanians, 1.6% Hungarians, 1,1% of other ethnicities, and unknown for 4,14% of the population. At the 2021 census, the town had a population of 8,793; of those, 90.88% were Romanians and 7.61% of unknown ethnicities.