Zalău (in Hungarian Zilah) is a city in Sălaj (in Hungarian Szilágy) County of Romania The commune contains two settlements: City of Zalău / Zilah and Stâna village. The city has got 67.977 inhabitants (20,1% Hungarians, 1992 census). Neighbouring communities are: Crişeni / Cigányi, Hereclean / Haraklány, Meseşenii de Jos / Magyarkecel, Agrij, Românaşi, Creaca and Mirsid communities.
The first mention of the settlement is from 1241 when the Mongols destroyed it. The church was built in 1246. Zilah was part of the Central-Szolnok County of the Kingdom of Hungary to 1538. 1538-1552 was part of the semi-independent Principality of Transylvania ruled by King János I. 1552-1570 was in Hungary ruled by the Habsburgs. The Treaty of Speyer in 1570 allocated it to the Principality of Transylvania with some counties (Partium Regni Hungariae in Hungarian 'Részek' means 'Parts'). 1806-1876 it was a Free Royal City. In 1862 Zilah was reallocated to Hungary. Capital of Central-Szolnok County to 1876, and Szilágy (in Romanian  Sălaj) County 1876-1919. 1876-1919 the settlement was a town in Szilágy County of the Kingdom of Hungary.
Inhabitants in 1910: 8.062; 7.477 (92,7%) Hungarian, 529 (6,6%) Rumanian and 56 (0,7%) other by mother tongue, 5.353 (66,4%) Calvinist, 1.333 (16,5%) Roman Catholic, 873 (10,9%) Greek Catholic, 415 (5,1%) Jew and 88 (1,1%) other by religion. From 1919/1920 (Romanian occupation / Treaty of Trianon) to 1940 (Second Decision in Vienna) part of the Kingdom of Romania. 1940-1944 part of Hungary. The Treaty of Paris reallocated it to Romania.The settlement was a town 1952-1968 in Cluj Region and from 1968 it is city in Sălaj County.The first written assignment of Zalau is in the Anonymous' Chronicle "Gesta Hungarorum", the notary of King's Bela IV of Hungary. The document was written in the latter half part of the IX-th century. In this respect, we have proofs to appreciate that Zalau existed as human settlement around year 900. The first attestation of Zalau is one from 1220. In 1473, on the 1st of August, Matei Corvin, the King of Hungary and Bohemia, certified Zalau as a town, "Oppidum Zilah", granting the inhabitants of Zalau the privilege of the economic independence, in a period of time when the will of the nobles and the kings was the only criterion to share justice and to rule the state. The location had various names: "Ziloc" in 1220, "Oppidum Zilah" in 1473, "Zila" in 1601, and "Zilahu" and "Zalahu" in the XIX-th century, or forms of German toponimy "Waltenberg" and "Zillenmarkt". Economic and political interests determined the transition of the town sometimes under the jurisdiction of the kings of Hungary and some other times of the princes of Transylvania. At the end of the XVI-th century, the town belonged to Transylvania and had an independent administrative rule made of 33 elected senators, from whom one of them was the mayor. There were also a notary, an archivist and a treasurer. Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave) was the first ruler that united the historical regions of Romania in 1599. In 1601, after his last victory at Guruslau, a village in Salaj County, Zalau was on its way to economic emancipation, having its own rules with administrative, legally, fiscal and military attributions and an independence which granted freedoms to its citizens all over the country. However, it was only at the beginning of the XVII-th century when the occupations of the inhabitants of the town where written down, and we here by mention: leather beltmakers, shoemakers, potters, wheelwrights, butchers, tailors, blacksmiths, carpenters, hatters, and armouriers. The town of Zalau has always been the capital of a county, and in 1968, Zalau became the seat town of the Salaj County. Since 1979 it has been in the position of a municipality.

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