Editing Blaj (section)

==History==
Blaj is first mentioned in 1271 as ''Villa Herbordi'', after the deed of a Count Herbod.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yt1M3egMbWMC&q=villa+herbordi&pg=PA244|title=Transylvania|isbn=9781841624198|last1=Mallows|first1=Lucy|last2=Abraham|first2=Rudolf|date=26 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GYwAAAAAcAAJ&q=villa+herbordi&pg=RA1-PA50|title=Archiv des Vereins für Siebenbürgische Landeskunde|year=1848}}</ref> In 1313, the domain passed to Herbod's son Blasius Cserei and the town was mentioned as ''Blasii''. Started as a [[hamlet (place)|hamlet]] for the twenty families of servants of the noble's court, it was awarded town status on May 19, 1737.

Blaj is the principal religious and cultural center of [[Greek Catholics]] in Transylvania. At 27 October 1687 begins the history of the [[Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic]], history directly connected to the history of the town Blaj. It all started at the end of the treaty through which [[Transylvania]] was entering under the protection of [[Austria]], renouncing the protection of the [[Ottoman Empire|Turkish Empire]].{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

The first public school in [[Romanian language|Romanian]] was established in Blaj in 1754. Blaj was the first place to have Romanian written with [[Latin alphabet]] instead of [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] in which it had traditionally been written. Blaj was also a center for the Romanian [[Age of Enlightenment]], being the founding site of the [[Transylvanian School]] that promoted the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] cultural heritage of the Romanians. Thus Blaj gained the nickname "The Little Rome",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www1.agerpres.ro/engleza-destinatie-romania/2014/06/18/destination-romania-alba-blaj-or-little-rome-as-eminescu-called-it-10-47-51|title=Blaj or "Little Rome", as Eminescu called it|date=June 18, 2014|website=AGERPRESS - the Romanian National News Agency|access-date=July 7, 2018|archive-date=July 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180709010714/https://www1.agerpres.ro/engleza-destinatie-romania/2014/06/18/destination-romania-alba-blaj-or-little-rome-as-eminescu-called-it-10-47-51|url-status=dead}}</ref> as Romania's national poet [[Mihai Eminescu]] called it.

In 1848, [[Câmpia Libertății]] in Blaj was where over 40,000 Romanians met to protest Transylvania becoming a part of Hungary, holding that the lands would be stolen from them.<ref name=Stoica1>{{cite book|last=Stoica|first=Vasile|title=The Roumanian Question: The Roumanians and their Lands|year=1919|publisher=Pittsburgh Printing Company|location=Pittsburgh|page=23|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/7314/view/1/23/}}</ref>