Beclean

This article is about the town in Bistriţa-Năsăud County, Romania. For the commune in Braşov County, see Beclean, Braşov. For the neighbourhood of Odorheiu Secuiesc, see Odorheiu Secuiesc.

Beclean
Town
Reformed church in Beclean
Coat of arms
Location of Beclean
Coordinates:
Country	Romania
County	Bistriţa-Năsăud County
Status	Town
Government
• Mayor	Nicolae Moldovan (Social Democratic Party)
Area
• Total	45.36 km2 (17.51 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	10,628
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Website	http://www.primariabeclean.ro

Beclean (Romanian pronunciation: [beˈkle̯an]; Hungarian and German: Bethlen) is a town in Bistriţa-Năsăud County, in north-eastern Transylvania, Romania. It had 10,628 inhabitants at the 2011 census. 81.6% of these were Romanians, 14.2% Hungarians and 3.7% Roma.

The town administers three villages: Coldău (Goldau; Várkudu), Figa (Füge) and Rusu de Jos (Alsóoroszfalu). It is the site of an important railway junction (the station is called Beclean pe Someş), where secondary routes to Sighetu Marmaţiei and Suceava diverge from the main railway line from Braşov to Satu Mare.

History

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1930	3,334	—
1977	6,957	+108.7%
1992	11,606	+66.8%
2002	12,033	+3.7%
2011	10,628	−11.7%
Source: Census data

The town of Beclean is also the ancestral seat of the Hungarian Bethlen family.