Maramureș

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Maramureș" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Maramureș (

drainage basin; it covers the Maramureș Depression and the surrounding Carpathian mountains.

Alternatively, the term Maramureș is also used for the Maramureș County of Romania, which contains the southern section of the historical region.

Name in other languages

Alternative names for Maramureș include

: Marmatia. In Yiddish it is מאַרמאַראָש.

Geography

Maramureș is a valley enclosed by the Oaș, Gutâi, Țibleș and Rodnei mountains (the northern section of the

. It is forested and not easily accessible.

The limits of the region are between the parallels of 47°33' N and 47°02' N and the meridians of 23°15' E and 25°03' E. Maramureș represents one of the largest depressions in the Carpathians, covering an area of about 10,000 km².

Its length from Khust to Prislop Pass is about 150 km and width from North to South is up to 80 km.

The main mountain passes linking Maramureș with the neighboring regions are high and in the past were hardly accessible in the winter. The Prislop Pass (1,416 m high) links the east of the region with Moldavia, Dealul Ștefăniței (1,254 m) links the south to Transylvania, the Pintea Pass (987 m) towards Baia Mare, Fărgău (587 m) in the west links the region to Oaș Country, while Frasini Pass (Yasinia; 931 m) links the north of the region to Galicia.

The mountains surrounding this region occupy more than half of the area. A few peaks reach above 2,000 m, such as Pietrosul (2,303 m) in the Rodnei Mountains to the south and Hovârla (2,061 m) in Muntele Negru (Cernahora) to the north.

The heavy forested mountains sustain many protected species of plants, such as

(Tetrao urogallus).

The last

from present-day Romania territory, a symbol of Maramureș, was hunted to extinction in 1852. Lostriţa, a local variety of salmon, still live in the mountain rivers.

Several protected areas have been created in Maramureș. The Rodna Mountains National Park was designated in 1990, the Maramureș Mountains Natural Park in 2004, and there are many other caves, gorges, cliff formations, and lakes which are officially-protected areas.

History

In ancient times, this area was settled by

.

The territory was part of the

in the 14th century.

In the 16th century, the Kingdom of Hungary was invaded and all but destroyed by the

Hungarian

part of the Monarchy.

After the

.

People

In the

, with smaller Romanian, Hungarian and German communities.

In the northern area most people speak

] Since the 1940s there have been villages cut in two by the state border. There are some villages in the north (within Ukraine) that have a sizeable Romanian population, as well as some villages in Romania that have a sizeable Ukrainian population.

Gallery

• 
  Haystacks Borșa Rodna Mountains National Park
• 
  Maramureș Mountains Natural Park
• 
  Lala Mare Lake, Rodna Mountains
• 
  Winter landscape
• 
  Baia Sprie
• 
  Fortress of Ardud
• 
  Borșa
• 
  Ethnographic Museum in Baia Mare
• 
  Ethnographic Museum of the Oaș Country
• 
  Bârsana Orthodox Monastery
• 
  Rohia Orthodox Monastery
• 
  Moisei Monastery
• 
  Merry Cemetery in Săpânța
• 
  Village Museum in Baia Mare
• 
  The Curtea Veche in Sighet
• 
  Memorial of the Victims of Communism
• 
  Baia Mare
• 
  Bastion of Baia Mare
• 
  Degenfeld House in Baia Mare
• 
  Horses Waterfall
• 
  Quartz Rhodochrosite from Cavnic Mine
• 
  Fluorite Quartz from Boldut Mine
• 
  Mocăniță Railway
• 
  Iza River

See also

• Wooden churches of Maramureș
• Northern Maramureș
• Hutsul Republic

Further reading

• Atlas and Gazetteer of Historic Hungary 1914, Talma Kiadó
  ISBN 963-85683-4-8
• Sighetul Marmatiei, Culture and Tourism 2007,
  ISBN 973-7663-12-8

References

External links

• Things to do when visiting Maramureș
• English translation of the Máramaros Yizkor Book Sefer Marmarosh; mea ve-shishim kehilot kedoshot be-yishuvan u-ve-hurbanan published in 1983 and 1996 (history and remembrance book of the approximately 160 Máramaros area Jewish shtetls and communities, and their destruction in the Holocaust)