Inhabited since the
Hallstatt period, the populated area lies in the
Tisza Valley, an important route as being the only access to the otherwise mountainous, sparsely populated region. After
895 in the 10th century the area became part of
Kingdom of Hungary. The first mention of a settlement dates back to the 11th century, and the city as such was first mentioned in 1326. In 1352, it was a
free royal town 1918 saw the
dissolution of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. On November 22, 1918, in an assembly of Romanians from Maramureș took place in the town's central square, electing a national council and deciding to send a delegation to the
Great National Assembly of
Alba Iulia, which voted the
union of Transylvania with Romania. The
Romanian Army took control of the area in the spring of 1919, during the
Hungarian–Romanian War. The
Allied Powers accepted the Romanian demands and Transylvania including Máramaros County was formally ceded to the
Kingdom of Romania in the
Treaty of Trianon in June 1920. In 1919, six Romanian schools opened in Sighet:
a boys' high school, a girls' high school, a boys' elementary school, a co-ed commercial
gymnasium, and two commercial high schools (one for boys, the other for girls). The Maramureș ethnographic museum opened in the cultural palace in 1926. During the
interwar period, over twenty newspapers appeared in the town, as well as a number of literary reviews. In August 1940, the
Second Vienna Award, arbitrated by
Germany and
Italy, reassigned the territory of
Northern Transylvania from Romania to
Hungary. As a result, Sighetu Marmației came under
Hungarian administration during
World War II. The second occurred after Passover 1944, so that by April, the town's ghetto contained close to 13,000 Jews from Sighet itself and the neighboring places of
Dragomirești,
Ocna Șugatag, and
Vișeu de Sus. Between May 16 and 22, the ghetto was liquidated in four transports, with its inhabitants sent to
Auschwitz concentration camp. Among the deportees was Sighet native and future
Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Elie Wiesel. In 1947, there were some 2,300 Jews in Sighet, including survivors and a considerable number of Jews from other parts of Romania. Towards the end of World War II, the city was taken back from Hungarian and
German troops by Romanian and
Soviet forces in October 1944. The
Paris Peace Treaties of 1947 voided the Vienna Awards, and reaffirmed the Trianon borders. In 1948, the new
Communist regime nationalized the city's factories, three publishing houses and banks. In 1950, with the
counties replaced by
regions, Sighet lost its status as an administrative center and became part of the . In 1960, the building of neighborhoods with apartment blocks began. The same year, the town's name became
Sighetul Marmației; the final “l” was dropped in 1968, when the city became once again part of Maramureș County. 1962 saw the opening of a wood processing factory (
Combinatul de Industrializare a Lemnului). Turning out furniture and other wood products, the enterprise had over 6,000 employees and played an important part in the city's economic development. After the
Romanian Revolution of 1989, it gradually fell upon hard times, with nine private firms employing some 3,500 in 2012. A second important employer during the Communist period was a textile factory. In May 2014, a commemoration was held in honour of the 70th anniversary of the deportations in May 1944. Events included a
Klezmer concert, Sabbath services in the one remaining synagogue, a memorial service at the Holocaust Monument at the site of the deportations, as well as an exhibit on life in Sighet prior to the deportations. The exhibit contained contributions by survivors and their families. Additionally, visits were organized to the Jewish Cemetery as well as the Holocaust Museum located in the childhood home of Elie Wiesel. On 3 August 2018, Wiesel's birthplace was vandalized. == Sighet Prison ==