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cross-border town in Timiș County, Romania
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Sânnicolau Mare (Romanian pronunciation: [sɨnnikoˌla.u ˈmare]; Hungarian: Nagyszentmiklós; German: Groß St. Nikolaus; Banat Swabian: Sanniklos; Serbian: Велики Семиклуш, romanized: Veliki Semikluš; Banat Bulgarian: Smikluš) is a town in Timiș County, Romania, and the westernmost in the country. Located in the Banat region, along the borders with Serbia and Hungary, it has a population of 10,627 as of 2021.
Sânnicolau Mare is the westernmost town of Romania and Timiș County, being also the third largest town in the county after Timișoara and Lugoj. It is a border town, having a 6 km (3.7 mi) border with Hungary, on the unregularized course of the Mureș River. It covers an area of 133.92 km2 (51.71 sq mi), 1.55% of the area of Timiș County. It borders Saravale to the east, Tomnatic to the south, Teremia Mare to the southwest, Dudeștii Vechi to the west. and Cenad to the northwest.
The town numbers 112 streets with a length of 60.85 km (37.81 mi), arranged perpendicularly to each other. The length of the town is 4 km (2.5 mi), and the width is 3.2 km (2.0 mi). The houses are arranged according to the alignment of the streets and mostly with the length perpendicular to the axis of the street, being parallel to each other. It is divided into 106 rectangle- (70%), square- (20%) and multiform-shaped (10%) blocks and has nine neighborhoods, built along its historical stages:
The town lies in the low plain of the Aranca Canal. It is generally flat, only slightly fragmented, as a result of water erosion during the time when the Mureș River was able to overflow and uneven deposition of alluvial material.
The territory is located in the Mureș Plain, which is a typical form of fluvio-lacustrine subsidence, with shallow valleys with abandoned riverbeds resulting from the regularization of watercourses and drainage, with an altitude between 80–85 m (262–279 ft). The northern part is located in the former meadow of Mureș, and the southern part in the former meadow of the old Aranca stream, today regularized and canalized.
On the territory of the town there are some elevations with southwest–northeast direction, which continue towards Saravale commune. The most important of these hunci (elevations) is located on the former border line between the town and the former commune of Sânnicolau German (now incorporated into the town), south of the Dudeștii Vechi–Tomnatic road, and is called Hunca Farchii. The most important natural resource is geothermal water, which is used in greenhouses, in hemp smelters and in heating homes.
The main collector of the Aranca Plain is the Aranca, which flows into the Tisa. The Aranca Canal is installed on the former riverbeds of the Mureș and has a divagation area before its damming. It springs from the Mureș meadow, from Felnac (where the Mureș dam begins) and flows into the Tisa.
The Aranca Canal crosses Sânnicolau Mare and in the past aimed to drain water from flooded lands, being widened and deepened in 1959 and 1960. On the territory of the town it has a length of 10 km (6.2 mi) and 532 m (1,745 ft), a width ranging from 6–16 m (20–52 ft) and a depth of between 1–3 m (3.3–9.8 ft). The maximum flow is recorded in spring, and the minimum flow in summer.
Due to its geographical position, Sânnicolau Mare falls within the conditions of temperate continental climate, with the predominance of maritime and continental air masses of eastern origin, to which are added the warm air masses that cross the Mediterranean and some polar cold air masses. Western circulation persists in both the cold and warm periods of the year and is characterized by mild winters with liquid precipitation. Polar circulation is determined by the cyclones in the North Atlantic and is characterized by temperature drops, heavy cloudiness and precipitation in the form of showers, and in winter the snow is accompanied by intense winds. Tropical circulation causes mild winters and significant amounts of precipitation, and in summer an unstable weather with showers and electric discharges.
The average annual temperature is 10.7 °C (51.3 °F). The average seasonal temperatures are as follows: in spring 11 °C or 52 °F (April), in summer 21.9 °C or 71.4 °F (July), in autumn 11.8 °C or 53.2 °F (October) and in winter 1.4 °C or 34.5 °F (January). Average monthly temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F) are recorded only in January (−1.4 °C or 29.5 °F) and February (−0.1 °C or 31.8 °F). The average annual thermal amplitude is 23.3 °C or 41.9 °F (i.e., the temperature difference between January (–1.4 °C) and July (21.9 °C)). The number of frost days is 46–49/year, and the first frost is recorded in mid-October, and the last in mid-April. The number of winter days (maximum temperature < 0 °C) is low due to the influence of warm and humid maritime air. Most winter days are recorded in January. The number of tropical days (maximum temperature > 30 °C or 86 °F) exceeds 35, being characteristic of July and August.
The average annual rainfall is 535.3 mm (21.07 in). During the year, the heaviest rainfall is in June (69.5 mm or 2.74 in), and the lowest is in February (29.1 mm or 1.15 in). By season, the rainfall is distributed as follows: in spring 134.5 mm (5.30 in), in summer 171.2 mm (6.74 in), in autumn 132.8 mm (5.23 in) and in winter 89.8 mm (3.54 in). Winter is usually poorer in snow, with the soil being covered in snow for an average of 30 days/year, of which 15 days are in January.
The prevailing winds are from the west and northwest, which bring rainfall in the form of showers and those from the southeast, which are dry. In June, the northwest winds dominate, which have a share of 25% of the total winds; in September, the southeast winds dominate, with a share of 21.5%; and the south winds have the lowest frequency and blow especially in April and May.
Human activities have produced major changes in the physiognomy of the vegetation by expanding agricultural lands and reducing natural vegetation. In the Aranca Plain there are elements of flora similar to those of the entire Western Plain. In the riverside of the Aranca Canal there are agricultural lands, but also mesophile meadows: bent (Agrostis capillaris), meadow foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis), meadow-grass (Poa pratensis), meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis), red clover (Trifolium pratense), spotted medick (Medicago arabica), and among the trees: white willow (Salix alba), black poplar (Populus nigra), etc. The border of the town can be classified as a type of vegetation in the steppe, forest-steppe and oak forest. In the steppe area, the grassy layer consists of violets (Viola odorata), two-leaved squills (Scilla bifolia) and snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis). The floristic structure of the forest-steppe includes pedunculate oak (Quercus robur), downy oak (Quercus pubescens) and silver poplar (Populus alba). Within the oak forest, species of field elm (Ulmus minor) and narrow-leaved ash (Fraxinus angustifolia) appear in addition to oak.
In Sânnicolau Mare, between 1970 and 1981, there were rose plantations of over 20,000 species, the town becoming symbolically the "town or roses". The most cultivated species of roses were Rosa cymosa, Rosa multiflora, Rosa × alba, Rosa × centifolia and Rosa × damascena. To these species of roses are added snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus), daisy (Bellis perennis), as well as other species that have adapted very well to the climatic conditions of the town.
The fauna is of Central European type with sub-Mediterranean elements, with penetrations and a mixture of species coming from the north, south and west of the country. The fauna of the steppe and forest-steppe is characterized by the presence of rodents such as ground squirrel, hamster, hare, and among the birds: turtle dove, nightingale, quail, grey partridge, etc. In the Aranca meadow and in the swamps around the town live numerous species of mallards, geese, herons, glossy ibises, fire-bellied toads and otters. The forest fauna is represented by roe deer, red fox, hare and squirrel, and among the birds are the same present in the steppe and forest-steppe. The fish fauna present in the Aranca Canal and in Mureș includes wels, carp, pike, Prussian carp, weatherfish and bleak.
The oldest inhabitants of this land would have been the Agathyrsi, named after Agathyrsus, a son of Heracles. Herodotus wrote that in 513 BC next to the Maris (Mureș) river lived the Agathyrsi who were of Thracian origin, engaging in cultivation of the land and even winemaking. The Agathyrsi have over time merged with the Dacians. At that time, the hearth of the town was made up partly of swampy lands fed by the overflow of Mureș and Aranca rivers.
In 106 AD, Roman emperor Trajan conquers Dacia and transforms it into a Roman province. In the time of Trajan, the Banat of Temes was called Dacia Riparia or Ripensis, because it was surrounded by the waters of the Tisa and Mureș. He began to populate it with Roman colonies, consolidating several fortresses and earth walls. On the left bank of the Mureș, Trajan set up a Roman colony and several cohorts of Legio XIII Gemina, who built here a castrum and a town called Morisena. It got its name from the Mureș and from the Dacian tribe Morasian, which had its residence here before the arrival of the Romans. Morisena would have covered the entire territory from Cenad to Sânnicolau Mare, being located between the Mureș and Aranca rivers – which at that time was navigable. Even if Morisena did not lie on the hearth of the town, there are enough scientific and military reasons to believe that in this place there was a castrum of Legio XIII Gemina erected as an outpost for the defense of Morisena. Between 106 and 274 AD Morisena becomes a town under the Roman Empire. In 274 AD, emperor Aurelian withdrew his legions south of the Danube, leaving Trajan's Dacia in the hands of the Goths.
Between 380 and 396 the Huns, invading Dacia under Attila, drove the Goths south of the Danube, occupying Dacia, which they named Hunia, Morisena becoming the capital of the Hun Empire, Attila's residence. Morisena was located on a very large area, including Cenad and Sânnicolau Mare, which appear together on the map of Europe in the 5th century. The natives were spared and even respected by the Huns, living with them in harmony. Attila in his battles in the Balkan Peninsula brings Roman slaves and settles them in Dacia, strengthening the Roman element. Byzantine rhetorician Priscus, sent by emperor Theodosius II, described Attila as having royal authority, dressed simply and very religiously, and learning beautiful things from the Dacians, Hun, Latin and Roman being spoken at his court. From those times are preserved the earth elevations on the border of the town called hunci, which were used as fortifications, observation points and tombs. The legends of the time say that Attila was buried on the territory of the town, in one night, in three coffins of gold, silver and iron, together with his weapons and jewelry, on the bed of the Aranca, which was then diverted.
In 453, after Attila's death, the Huns were driven to the Black Sea by the Gepids, a Germanic people related to the Goths. In 566, the Gepids leave Dacia, leaving it to the Avars, a people of Tatar origin. Their khagan Bayan had his residence in Morisena, occupying this territory until 676, when Dacia was called Avaria. From the 5th century onwards, the Slavs followed in the footsteps of the Huns, and in the 7th–8th centuries they crossed the Danube during the fighting between the Byzantines and the Persians, occupied the Balkan Peninsula and formed today's Slavic peoples: Bulgarians and Serbs. Compared to the Goths, Huns, Gepids and Avars, who left without leaving too much influence, the Slavs left a strong influence in this area through Slavic toponyms and geographical names.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Sânnicolau Mare”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.