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capital of the county of Satu Mare, Romania
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Satu Mare (pronounced [ˈsatu ˈmare] ⓘ; Hungarian: Szatmárnémeti [sɒtmaːrneːmɛti]; German: Sathmar; Yiddish: סאטמאר Satmar or סאַטמער Satmer) is a city in Romania with a population of 91,520 (2021). It is the capital of Satu Mare County as well as the centre of the Satu Mare metropolitan area. It lies in the region of Maramureș, broadly part of Transylvania. Mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum as castrum Zotmar ("Zotmar's fort"), the city has a history going back to the Middle Ages. Today, it is an academic, cultural, industrial, and business centre in the Nord-Vest development region.
Satu Mare is situated in Satu Mare County, in northwest Romania, on the river Someș, 13 km (8.1 mi) from the border with Hungary and 27 km (17 mi) from the border with Ukraine. The city is located at an altitude of 126 m (413 ft) on the Lower Someș alluvial plain, spreading out from the Administrative Palace at 25 October Square. The boundaries of the municipality contain an area of 150.3 square kilometres (58.0 sq mi).
From a geomorphologic point of view, the city is located on the Someș Meadow on both sides of the river, which narrows in the vicinity of the city and widens upstream and downstream from it; flooded during heavy rainfall, the field has various geographical configurations at the edge of the city (sand banks, valleys, micro-depressions).
The formation of the current terrain of the city, dating from the late Pliocene in the Tertiary period, is linked to the clogging of the Pannonian Sea. Layers of soil were created from deposits of sand, loess and gravel, and generally have a thickness of 16 m (52 ft)–18 m (59 ft). Over this base, decaying vegetation gave rise to podsolic soils, which led to favorable conditions for crops (cereals, vegetables, fruit trees).
The water network around Satu Mare is composed of the Someș River, Pârâul Sar in the north and the Homorod River in the south. The formation and evolution of the city was closely related to the Someș River, which, in addition to allowing for the settlement of a human community around it, has offered, since the early Middle Ages, the possibility of international trade with coastal regions, a practice that favored milling, fishing and other economic activities.
Because the land slopes gently around the city, the Someș River has created numerous branches and meanders (before 1777, in the perimeter of the city there were 25 meanders downstream and 14 upstream). After systematisation works in 1777, the number of meanders in the city dropped to 9 downstream and 5 upstream, the total length of the river now being at 36.5 km (22.7 mi) within the city. Systematisation performed up to the mid-19th century configured the existing Someș riverbed; embankments were built 17.3 km (10.7 mi) long on the right bank and 11 km (6.8 mi) on the left. In 1970, the embankments were raised by 2 m (6.6 ft)–3 m (9.8 ft), protecting 52,000 hectares within the city limits and restoring nearly 800 ha of agricultural land that had previously been flooded.
The flora associated with the town of Satu Mare is characteristic for the meadow area with trees of soft essence like wicker, indigenous poplar, maple and hazelnut. Grassland vegetation is represented by Agrostis stolonifera, Poa trivialis, Alopecurus pratensis and other types of vegetation.
The city's largest park, the Garden of Rome, features some rare trees that are uncommon to the area, including the pagoda tree, native to East Asia (especially China); Pterocarya, also native to Asia; and Paulownia tomentosa, native to central and western China.
Fauna is represented by species of rodents (hamster and european ground squirrel), reptiles, including Vipera berus in the Noroieni forest, and as avifauna species of ducks, geese, egrets, during passages and systematic occasional wanderings.
Satu Mare has a continental climate, characterised by hot dry summers and cold winters. As the city is in the far north of the country, winter is much colder than the national average, with minimum temperatures reaching −17 °C (1 °F), lower than values recorded in other cities in western Romania like Oradea (−15 °C (5 °F)) or Timișoara (−17 °C (1 °F)). The average annual temperature is 9.6 °C (49 °F), or broken down by seasons: Spring 10.2 °C (50 °F), summer 19.6 °C (67 °F), autumn 10.8 °C (51 °F) and winter 1.7 °C (35 °F). Atmospheric humidity is quite high. Prevailing wind currents blow in from the northwest, bringing spring and summer rainfall. Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate).
The Hungarian name of the town Szatmár is believed to come from the personal name Zotmar, as the 13th-century Gesta Hungarorum gives the name of the 10th-century fortified settlement at the site of today's Satu Mare as castrum Zotmar ("Zotmar's fort"). The name Satu Mare, which means "great village" in Romanian, was used for the first time by the priest Moise Sora Novac in the 19th century. An older Romanian name, Sătmar, was formally replaced by the current one in 1925.
Archaeological evidence from Țara Oașului, Ardud, Medieșu Aurit, Homoroade, etc. clearly shows settlements in the area dating to the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. There is also evidence that the local Dacian population remained there after the Roman conquest in 101/106 AD. Later, these lands may have formed part of Menumorut's holdings; one of the important defensive fortresses – castrum Zotmar, dating to the 10th century – was at Satu Mare, as mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum. After Stephen I of Hungary created the Kingdom of Hungary in the year 1000, German colonists were settled at the periphery of the city (Villa Zotmar), brought in by Stephen's wife, the Bavarian princess Gisela of Hungary. Later, they were joined by more German colonists from beyond the Someș River, in Mintiu.
A royal free city since the 13th century, Satu Mare changed hands several times in the 15th century until the Báthory family took possession of the citadel in 1526, proceeding to divert the Someș's waters in order to defend the southern part of the citadel; thus, the fortress remained on an island linked to the main roads by three bridges over the Someș. In 1562 the citadel was besieged by Ottoman armies led by Pargalı İbrahim Pasha of Buda and Maleoci Pasha of Timișoara. Then the Habsburgs besieged it, leading the fleeing Transylvanian armies to set it on fire. The Austrian general Lazar Schwendi ordered the citadel to be rebuilt after the plans of Italian architect Ottavio Baldigara; using an Italian system of fortifications, the new structure would be pentagonal with five towers. After a period when it changed hands, the town came under Ottoman control in 1661. Called Sokmar by the new authorities, it was a kaza center within the Şenköy sanjak of Varat Eyalet. This status held until 1691, when the army of the Habsburgs expelled the Ottomans during the Great Turkish War. In 1711, the Treaty of Szatmár was signed in the city, ending Rákóczi's War for Independence.
Until then, Satu Mare and Mintiu had remained two distinct entities. The two settlements, then called "Szatmár" and "Németi", were united in 1715, and the resulting city was named "Szatmár-Németi". On 2 January 1721, Emperor Charles VI recognised the union, at the same time granting Satu Mare the status of royal free city.
The city's importance was linked to the transportation and commerce of salt from nearby Ocna Dejului (Hungarian: Désakna, German: Salzdorf), possibly already at a very early date. Due to the economic and commercial benefits it began to receive in the 13th century, Satu Mare became an important centre for craft guilds. In the 18th century, intense urbanisation began; several buildings survive from that period, including the old city hall, the inn, a barracks, the Greek Catholic church and the Reformed church. A Roman Catholic diocese was established there in 1804. In 1823, the city's systematization commission was established in order to direct its local government. In 1844, paving operations begun in 1805 were stepped up. The first industrial concerns also opened, including the steam mill, the brick factory, the Neuschloss Factory for wood products, the lumber factory, the Princz Factory and the Unio Factory. Due to its location at the intersection of commercial roads, Szatmárnémeti became an important rail hub. The line to Nagykároly (Carei) was built in 1871, followed in 1872 by a line to Máramarossziget (Sighetu Marmației) line, an 1894 link to Nagybánya (Baia Mare), 1900 to Erdőd (Ardud) and 1906 to Bikszád (Bixad).
Since the second half of the 19th century, it underwent important economic and socio-cultural changes. The city's large companies (the Unio wagon factory, the Princz Factory, the Ardeleana textile enterprise, the Freund petroleum refinery, the brick factory and the furniture factory) prospered in this period, and the city invested heavily in communication lines, schools, hospitals, public works and public parks. The banking and commerce system also developed: in 1929 the chamber of commerce and industry, as well as the commodities stock market were established, with 25 commercial enterprises and 75 industrial and production firms as members. In 1930 there were 33 banks.
After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, Romanian troops captured the town during their offensive launched on 15 April 1919. By the Treaty of Trianon, Satu Mare officially ceased to be part of Hungary becoming part of Romania. In 1940, the Second Vienna Award gave back Northern Transylvania, including Satu Mare, to Hungary. In October 1944, the city was captured by the Soviet Red Army. After 1945, the city became again part of Romania. Soon afterwards, a Communist regime came to power, lasting until the 1989 revolution.
The presence of Jews in Transylvania is first mentioned in the late 16th century. In the 17th century, prince Gabriel Bethlen permitted Sephardi Jews from Turkey to settle in the Transylvanian capital Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia), in 1623. In the early 18th century, Jews were allowed to settle in Sathmar. Some of them became involved in large-scale agriculture, becoming landlords or lessees, or were active in trade and industry, or distilled brandy and leased taverns on crown estates. In 1715, when Sathmar became a royal town, they were expelled, beginning to resettle in the 1820s. In 1841, several Jews obtained the permission to settle permanently in Sathmar; the first Jewish community was formally established in 1849, and in 1857, a synagogue was built. After a great number of traditional Ashkenazic Jews had settled in the town, the Jewish community split in 1898, when a supporter of the Hasidic movement was elected chief rabbi, into an Orthodox and a Status Quo community, led by a Zionist rabbi, which erected a synagogue in 1904.
In the 1920s, there were several Zionist organizations in Satu Mare, and the yeshiva, one of the largest in the region, was attended by 400 students. In 1930, the city had five large synagogues and about 20 shtiebels. In 1928, a conflict within the Orthodox community broke out over the election of a new chief rabbi, lasting six years and ending in 1934 with the appointment of the Hasidic rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, a traditionalist and anti-Zionist, who later re-founded the Satmar Hasidic dynasty in Williamsburg, New York. Another Hasidic rabbi, Aharon Roth, the founder of the Shomrei Emunim and Toldot Aharon communities in Jerusalem, was also active in Satu Mare.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Satu Mare”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.