On this map, the Nösnerland is the green area to the north of the main Transylvanian Saxon settlements, centered on Bistrița/Bistritz (also known under its archaic standard German form as Nösen).
Beginning in the 12th century and increasingly in the 13th–14th centuries,
Hungarian kings invited
German colonists (mainly from present-day
Luxembourg and the adjacent areas in western contemporary
Germany) to settle in the then eastern lands of the
Kingdom of Hungary; these German settlers became collectively known as the
Transylvanian Saxons (
German: Siebenbürger Sachsen). The Saxons in the southeast settled in the
Burzenland, while the settlers in the northeast established towns along the Bistrița and Mureș rivers beginning in the early 13th century. As the latter settlers' first major town in the area was Nösen on the Bistrița in 1206, the surrounding area became known as the Nösnerland. The largest cities of this region were Nösen, later known as Bistritz (
Bistrița in Romanian), in the north and Sächsisch-Regen (
Reghin in Romanian) in the south.