Maramureș County

Județul Maramureș
Județul Maramureș
County (Județ)
	The Maramureș County Prefect's building from the interwar period.
	Coat of arms
Country	Romania
Historic region	Maramureș
Capital city (Reședință de județ)	Sighet
Area
• Total	3,381 km2 (1,305 sq mi)
Population (1930)
• Total	194,619
• Density	58/km2 (150/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Maramureș County

Județul Maramureș
Maramureș County Județul Maramureș
County
	(From top to bottom and left to right) Bârsana Monastery, Merry Cemetery, Breb, Maramureș Village Museum, city centre of Sighetu Marmației, Wooden Church of Budești Josani, Wooden Church of Ieud Deal, Wooden Church of Poienile Izei, city centre of Baia Mare
	Flag Coat of arms
Country	Romania
Development region	Nord-Vest
Historical region	Maramureș
Capital	Baia Mare
Government
• President of the County Board	Ionel Bogdan Ovidiu (EPP)
• Prefect	Rudolf Stauder
Area
• Total	6,304 km2 (2,434 sq mi)
• Rank	15th
Population (2021-12-01)
• Total	452,475
• Rank	17th
• Density	72/km2 (190/sq mi)
Telephone code	(+40) 262 or (+40) 362
ISO 3166 code	RO-MM
GDP (nominal)	US$ 6.370 billion (2024)
GDP per capita	US$ 5,844 (2015)
Website	County Council; Prefecture

Maramureș County (Romanian pronunciation: [maraˈmureʃ] ^ⓘ) is a county (județ) in Romania, in the Maramureș region. The county seat is Baia Mare.

Name

In Hungarian it is known as Máramaros megye, in Ukrainian as Мараморо́щина, in German as Kreis Marmarosch, and in Yiddish as מאַרמאַראָש.

Geography

Maramureș County is situated in the northern part of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, and has a border with Ukraine. This county has a total area of 6,304 square kilometres (2,434 sq mi), of which 43% is covered by the Rodna Mountains, with its tallest peak, Pietrosul [ro], at 2,303 metres (7,556 ft) altitude.

Together with the Gutâi and Țibleș mountain ranges, the Rodna mountains are part of the Eastern Carpathians. The rest of the county are hills, plateaus, and valleys. The county is crossed by Tisa River and its main tributaries: the Iza, Vișeu, and Mara rivers.

Neighbours

The neighbouring territorial units, both Romanian and foreign, to Maramureș County are listed below:

Suceava County to the east;
Satu Mare County to the west;
Ukraine to the north – Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and Zakarpattia Oblast;
Sălaj County, Cluj County, and Bistrița-Năsăud County to the south.

Administrative divisions

Maramureș County has 2 municipalities, 11 towns and 63 communes.

Municipalities
- Baia Mare - county seat; population: 114,925 (as of 2011)
- Sighetu Marmației

Towns

Communes
- Ardusat
- Ariniș
- Asuaju de Sus
- Băița de sub Codru
- Băiuț
- Bârsana
- Băsești
- Bicaz
- Bistra
- Bocicoiu Mare
- Bogdan Vodă
- Boiu Mare
- Botiza
- Breb
- Budești
- Călinești
- Câmpulung la Tisa
- Cernești
- Cicârlău
- Coaș
- Coltău
- Copalnic-Mănăștur
- Coroieni
- Cupșeni
- Desești
- Dumbrăvița
- Fărcașa
- Gârdani
- Giulești
- Groși
- Groșii Țibleșului
- Ieud
- Lăpuș
- Leordina
- Mireșu Mare
- Moisei
- Oarța de Jos
- Ocna Șugatag
- Onceşti
- Petrova
- Poienile de sub Munte
- Poienile Izei
- Recea
- Remetea Chioarului
- Remeți
- Repedea
- Rona de Jos
- Rona de Sus
- Rozavlea
- Ruscova
- Săcălășeni
- Săcel
- Sălsig
- Săpânța
- Sarasău
- Satulung
- Șieu
- Șișești
- Strâmtura
- Suciu de Sus
- Vadu Izei
- Valea Chioarului
- Vima Mică
- Vișeu de Jos

Economy

Maramureș is known for its pastoral and agricultural traditions, largely unscathed by the industrialisation campaign carried out during Romania's communist period. Ploughing, planting, harvesting, and hay making and handling are mostly done through manual labour. The county is also home to a strong mining industry of extraction of metals other than iron. The industrial plants built around Baia Mare during the communist period heavily polluted the area in the past, but recently, due to the decline of the city's industrial activity, the area has become less polluted.

Tourism

The region is known for its beautiful rural scenery, local small woodwork and craftwork industry as well as for its churches and original rural architecture. There are not many paved roads in the rural areas, but most of them are usually accessible.

The county's main tourist attractions are:

The cities of Baia Mare and Sighetu Marmației.
The villages on the Iza, Mara, and Vișeu Valleys.
- The Wooden churches of Maramureș
- The wooden churches of Lăpuș Country [ro]
- The wooden churches of Chioar Country [ro]
- The Merry Cemetery of Săpânța
The Rodna Mountains, the Rodna Mountains National Park, and the Maramureș Mountains Natural Park.
The landscape of Cavnic.
The Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance in Sighetu Marmației.

Demographics

Ethnic composition of Maramureș County (2021)

Romanians (84.65%)

Ukrainians (including Hutsuls and other Rusyns) (6.36%)

Hungarians (5.73%)

Romani (2.94%)

Germans (Zipser Germans and Transylvanian Saxons) (0.14%)

Others (0.19%)

According to the 2021 census, the county had a population of 452,475 and the population density was 71.8/km² (185.9/sq mi).^[3]

Year	County population^[4]
1948	321,287
1956	367,114
1966	427,645
1977	492,860
1992	538,534
2002	510,110
2011	461,290
2021	452,475

Politics

The Maramureș County Council, elected at the 2020 local elections, consists of 34 councillors, with the following party composition:^[5]

	Party	Seats	Current County Council
	National Liberal Party (PNL)	13
	Coalition for Maramureș (PSD)	10
	People's Movement Party (PMP)	5
	PRO Romania (PRO)	3
	Save Romania Union (USR)	3

Historical county

History

In 1199, the region is first attested.
In 1241 the Tatar invasion decimated about half of the local population.
In the 14th century, Duke (knyaz) Bogdan of Maramureș crossed the Carpathians and founded the Principality of Moldavia. In 1343, the Voivodeship of Maramureș, led by a Romanian nobility, is established, and it lasts until 1402.
In the Middle Ages, the historical region of Máramaros (Maramureș) was known for its salt mines and later for its lumber.

In 1920, under the Treaty of Trianon, the northern part of the county became part of newly-formed Czechoslovakia, while the southern part (including Sighetu Marmației) became part of the Kingdom of Romania.

After the administrative unification law in 1925, the county remained as it was, with an identical name and territory.

In 1938, King Carol II promulgated a new Constitution, and subsequently he had the administrative division of the Romanian territory changed. Ten ținuturi (approximate translation: "lands") were created (by merging the counties) to be ruled by rezidenți regali (approximate translation: "Royal Residents") – appointed directly by the king – instead of the prefects. Maramureș County became part of Ținutul Crișuri.

In August 1940, under the auspices of Nazi Germany, which imposed the Second Vienna Award, the county was transferred back to Hungary with the rest of Northern Transylvania. In October 1944, Romanian forces with Soviet assistance recaptured the ceded territory and reintegrated it into Romania, re-establishing the county. Romanian jurisdiction over the county per the Treaty of Trianon was reaffirmed in the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947. The counties of Romania, including Maramureș, were disestablished by the communist government of Romania in 1950 in favour of regions, and re-established in 1968 when Romania restored the county administrative system.

Administration

In 1930, the county was originally divided into three districts (plăși):^[6]

Plasa Iza
Plasa Sighet (headquartered at Sighet)
Plasa Vișeu (headquartered at Vișeu de Sus)

Subsequently, the Iza and Sighet districts were reorganized into three districts, adding one:

Plasa Șugatag (headquartered at Ocna Șugatag)

Population

According to the 1930 census, the county's population was 194,619, 57.9% Romanian, 20.9% Jews, 11.9% Ruthenians (including Ukrainians), 6.9% Hungarians, 2.0% Germans, as well as other minorities.^[7] The following composition was recorded from the religious point of view: 64.4% Greek Catholic, 21.0% Jewish, 6.4% Roman Catholic, 5.3% Eastern Orthodox, 1.8% Reformed, as well as other minorities.^[7]

Urban population

In 1930 the county's urban population ethnically consisted of 38.6% Jews, 35.4% Romanians, 19.9% Hungarians, 4.5% Ruthenians (including Ukrainians), as well as other minorities. Yiddish was spoken by 36.6% of the urban population, followed by Romanian (33.7%), Hungarian (25.7%), Ukrainian (2.3%), as well as other minorities. From the religious point of view, the urban inhabitants were Jewish (38.9%), Greek Catholics (38.0%), Roman Catholics (12.8%), Reformed (5.7%), Eastern Orthodox (3.5%), as well as other minorities.^[7]