Maramureş (historical region)

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Maramureş (in Romanian; Hungarian: Máramaros; Latin: Marmatia; Ukrainian: Мармарощина / Marmaroshchyna, Мараморщина / Maramorshchyna, Марамуреш / Maramuresh) is a historical region in the northern of Transylvania, along the upper Tisza River. The territory of its southern section is now parts of Maramureş County in the northern Romania; its northern section is included in the Zakarpattia Oblast of western Ukraine. Prior to this division, that occured in 1920, the region coincided with Máramaros comitatus of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Alternatively, the name Maramureş is used for the Maramureş County of Romania, which countains the southern section of the former historical region and also small parts of the interbellic Satu Mare County and Sălaj County counties (former pre-WWI Szatmar and Szolnok-Doboka comitata).

Contents 1 Geography 2 History 3 People 4 References

[edit] Geography

[edit] History

Main article: History of Maramureş

Unlike the surrounding areas, Maramureş is a big valley totally enclosed by mountains, with a thin opening at Khust, with several dozen small mountain rivers and creeks flowing into the river Tisza (Tisa). A forested, inaccessible region, it was under loose Hungarian control from the 11th century, nominally a part of the comitatus of Borsova. However it remained an autonomous region, gradually losing its privilleges, until it was fully included in the Hungarian Kingdom in the 14th century. It was allowed to preserve its specific “political” organization – the Voevodate - comprising itself many small autonomous parts. The King has long struggled to convince the Voivodes to accept the title of Count, with the implied dependency in political and financial matters, which to the locals meant losing their independence – something they could not bear to hear. The social organization during the middle ages was also very specific: the people in many mountain villages, where each family by definition had a considerable domain, were called nameşi (pronounced [name'sh']), i.e. free peasants taking pride in their family (the term points to the belonging to a small clan, from Romanian neam = extended family).

[edit] People

In the southern section, the majority of the population are Romanians. There are also some Hungarians, Ukrainians and Roma. In the northern section, the majority is Unkainian, with smaller Romanian and Hutsul (a Ukrainian subgroup) communities.

[edit] References