Romania - Maramures ( Baia Mare )

Ancient names
Dacian: Maramarista
Latin: Marmatia
Maramures' history is ancient, enchanting and beautiful. It is a civilization and culture carved in wood and stone in word and soul.

There is evidence that this region was first settled as far back as 35,000 BC, the Superior Paleolithic era. Archaeological discoveries of this primitive society have been uncovered in the Iza Valley near the village of Nanesti.

Remnants from a Neolithic culture were discovered in many regions of Maramures. Artifacts were found around Sighetu-Marmatiei, Costiui, Oncesti, Cornesti and Giulesti. Some discoveries can be dated to 6,000 BC.

Later, around 2000 BC, the migration of Indo-Europeans occurred. By the Bronze Age the region of Maramures was well settled, though due to the geography the population was quite sparse. Major archaeological discoveries have been found in more than twenty locations from the Bronze Age. This cultural establishment provides the first proof that the settlers of this region were of Gaeto-Dacian ancestry. During this time the lands of Maramures and much of modern Romania was the kingdom of Dacia.

In antiquity the region governed by Thracian tribes, also known as Getae-Dacians. Around 300 BC - 200 BC, the migration of Celts brought Central Europe a more advanced technological culture.
At the beginning of the 1st century BC the latter, under king Burebista, militarily defeated the Celts, forcing them to retreat to the territory of today's Germany. The Dacians during that period built their houses on higher banks of rivers, remains of which still exist at Cetatea (near Ocna Slatina). The salt from this town was also very valuable during that period.

In 107, they established the Roman province of Dacia Superior, with an initial northern boundary along the Someş River, later to be moved further north. Maramureş became a region immediately adjacent to the Roman province.

Although the Roman administration retreated after 168 years , the influence of Rome remained, due to the now linguistically Roman and ethnically (traditions) Daco-Roman locals (romanians), who along with the Empire Dacia became Christian in 325.

At the end of the 7th century until 10th - 11th century the whole surrounding region was under the Avar khanate. The population of Maramureş remained linguistically and ethnically Vlach (Romanians); however, little is known regarding political control over the area.

The social organization of Maramureş 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 nămeşi [nameshi], i.e. free peasants taking pride in their families. The term points to the belonging to a small clan, from the Romanian "neam" [bigger old family]. This term has been preserved to this day, both in the areas that remained Romanian

In the middle of the 14th century, Maramureş, still partly preserving the institution of Voevodate, was an important catalyst in uniting the lands to the east of the Carpathian mountains and forming the Moldavian Principality.

The last incursion of the Ottomans into Central Europe proved disastrous to them. In 1683, the Austrians and the Poles defeated the Ottomans at the gates of Vienna. In 1686, they conquered Buda, and in 1690 took over Transylvania, abolishing the principality.

At the end of the World War I, when Austria-Hungary dissimulated/broke down, the nations inhabiting it elected national and/or regional assemblies to determine their fate and to decide the future political configurations. As a result Maramureş County was divided into North and South.

The National Assembly of the Romanians of (inner) Transylvania, Crişana, Banat and Maramureş, composed of 1228 elected members, has decided on December 1, 1918 in Alba Iulia upon their union with Romania.

On December 15, 1918, in Mediaş, the Council of the Transylvanian Saxons and Danubian Swabians (ethnic Germans that moved to live in Transylvania in the 12th-13th, respectively in the 18th centuries) decided to support the Romanians, mainly because of their adversity to the prospect of otherwise living in a Hungarian national state, which was due to the Magyarization policy practiced in the Transleitanian part of Austria-Hungary after 1870 and until World War I

Throughout the summer of 1919, Czech troops began to take control over most of what is today Carpathian Ruthenia, with Romanian troops gaining control of its southern regions (Maramures) in late spring, in their push, at the request of the Versailles Conference, against the Communist Hungarian Republic.