Documentarily attested in 1265 under the name Hungnod, according to the papal tithe register, Hunedoara will know an impetuous development and will play an important role in the history of Romania. The antiquity of this settlement, which originated at the foot of Sanpetru Hill at the confluence of the Cerna and Zlasti rivers, is much deeper in the mists of time than the documentary attestation. Archaeologists have discovered both in the hearth of the city and in the surrounding villages where it draws its sap, traces of habitation, dating from the Stone Age. Also on Sanpetrului Hill there are material traces from the Bronze and Iron Ages in a complete succession. More than a ton of large iron magnifiers and a metallurgical workshop with eight furnaces from the Daco-Getae period were found on the terraces around the fortress, in a warehouse. In the current living area of the people of Hunedoara, monetary treasures from the Dacian times were discovered, known as “Hunedoara type”, as well as Roman coins of republican or imperial type covering a long period of time (183 BC-sec. III AD) which proves strong economic contacts and not only, between two civilizations, one of the "eternal city of Rome" and another plagued by the immortals of Daco-Getic antiquity.
