Satu-Mare County - Geography and history
Satu Mare county is located in the north-west of Romania, bordering Ukraine, and laying on an area of 4 418 km². The administrative organisation of this county, as of 31 December 2000, was the following: 2 municipalities and 2 towns, 56 communes and 226 villages. It borders Ukraine and Hungary (to the north and to the west, respectively) and the following counties: Maramures (to the east), Salaj and Bihor (to the south). The county's capital city is Satu Mare.
The county's geography is diverse, the plain is the main geography type, besides the hills and the mountains.
The plain area, part of the Pannonia Depression, represents 63% of the total area, and spreads to the west and south-east of the county and is crossed by the Somes and Crasna rivers.
The mountainous area covers the north-east of the county, as represented by the Oas Mountains and a little part of the Gutâi Mountains. The elevations grow gradually from east to west, reaching 827 m in the Oas Mountains and 1 200 m on the Pietroasa Peak from the Gutâi Mountains. To the west, the mountains close the "Oas Country" Depression.
The climate is temperate-continental, characterised by hot summers, cold winters and abundant rainfalls, and presents small differences between plains and hills.
The hydrographical network of Satu Mare county is represented by the Somes river (60 km on the county's territory), the Tur river (66 km) and the Crasna river (57 km).
The geography and the climate of today's Satu Mare county offered good life conditions for the Neanderthal man and Homo Sapiens Fosilis, who populated the high areas of the Tara Oasului Depression more than a hundred thousand years BC.
An important role in the area was played by the Dacians, who, for one millennium, developed a prosperous civilisation, with an apogee in the Mediesu Aurit settlement, where the traces of 13 kilns used for burning pottery were discovered, the biggest in the country.
The end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th century made up the rule of the Menumorut voivode, whose Castrum Zotmar fortress was conquered by the Hungarians after three days of struggle, as mentioned in Anonymus' "Gesta Hungarorum".
The Satu Mare Shire (attested in 1181), located at the crossroad of some important trading roads and rich in natural resources, had an eventful history, the place becoming more important after the battle of Mohács (1526), when it became the quarrel object between the Austrians and the Transylvanian principle.
In the summer of 1601, Michel the Brave rested with his army at Moftin, before leaving for Guruslau, where he had his last victory.
Between 1660 and 1661 the county was devastated by the Turkish armies, accompanied by the famous Turkish historiographer Evlyia Celebi, who wrote a very detailed description of Satu-Mare.
The instalment of the Habsburg occupation, beginning with 1711, marked the end of the Kurutzy War, and the beginningof a long époque of stability and prosperity.
Because of the complex geological structure of the county's soil, there are rich mineral resources useful to the economical development.
In the mountain area, especially in the Oas volcanic area, complex ores were discovered (pyrite, zinc, lead, gold, and silver) as well as iron ores (limonite, siderite, and pearlite). There are also important resources of construction materials: andesite, freestone, and chalkstone in the Tara Oas Depression, while there are gravel, sand banks and clay on the Somes river bed.
Satu Mare county is located on an immense underground water network, with springs of different compositions: carbon-gas mineral waters, sodium chloride waters with alkaline properties, softly sulphurous waters, bicarbonate waters, or thermal waters of more than 50°C.
Economy
Satu Mare county's economy is specialised in car construction, light industry and furniture production, having a primary insufficiently exploited sector and a tertiary developing sector. At the end of 2000 there wereabout 4 929 active companies in Satu Mare . Of the total number of active companies, 17.9% had industry as a main activity, while 4.8% worked in the agricultural sector, 6.5% in constructions, and 70.8% in services.
The crafts tradition was attested to since the census of 1857, though the share of 25% of the employment of the active population in this sector represents the basis of using the human resources with high skills in 36 thousand jobs.
The county's industry consists of: the machinery and tools industry, the wood furniture industry, the textile and garment industry, and the food industry. Among the representative products, there can be enumerated the ones with a larger share in the national economy: cooking stoves with gas fuel, drilling machines, textile garment, oak timber, furniture, woollies, cotton cloths, and edible oils. Almost the entire garment production realised by the county's units is exported (99.1%), the same with the rubber and plastic products (98%), the textile products (88.6%), the furniture (85.2%), the nonferrous products (81.4%) and the leather and footwear products (79.9%).
The Satu Mare county's agriculture has a favourable structure of the arable land, and the agricultural production was accomplished in 2000 with a share of 65.1% in the vegetal sector and of 34.9% in the livestock. The vegetal sector is specialised in cereal crops (corn and wheat), sunflower, potatoes, sugar beet and vegetables. In 2000, 285.7 thousand tons of cereals, of which 156.2 thousand tons were corn, were obtained.
Satu Mare county has an important fruit potential, as the biggest strawberry producer of the country, producing over 60% of Romania's strawberry production.
In 2000, related to the hierarchy of the livestock, the county ranked the 19th regarding the cattle (66 thousand head) and the 7th regarding the pigs (147 thousand).
Satu Mare county has an area of 81 thousand ha of forests and other forested lands. Still, the rich hunting and forest funds are not sufficiently turned into profit.
At the end of the 2000 the railway transportation infrastructure totalled 220 km of roads, with a density of 49.8 km per 1 000 km² and operated with 52 stations.
At the end of 2000, the length of the public roads was 1 604 km, with a density of 36.3 km per of 100 km² of territory, of which 268 km were national roads (161 km European roads), and 1 336 km were county and communal roads.
The Satu Mare Airport is located 14 km away from the centre of the Satu Mare municipality , with a taxi strip of 2.5 km, where planes can also land by night, being opened for the international traffic.
As of 31 July 2000, the number of accommodations was 39, with 2 028 places.
Population and social environment
As of 1 July 2000, the Satu Mare county's population was 390 121 inhabitants, 1% less than as of 1 July 1996.
In 2000 the density of the population was 88.3 inhabitants per km2, as compared to 94.1 inhabitants per km2 the country's average.
The young population (0-24 years) had in 2000 a share of 36.8%, above the country level, but less than in 1996 (39.2%).
The population aged 65 and over had a share of 11%, compared to 13.3%, the national total; as compared to 1996 (10.5%), one can assist to an aging process of the population.
The average age of the population was 35.5 years, 1.7 years less than the national average.
The infant mortality was 16.3 deaths of children under 1 year per 1 000 live births, 2.3% less compared to the national level.
In 2000, the marriage rate was 6.6 marriages per 1 000 inhabitants, and the divorce rate was 1.51 per 1 000 inhabitants .
The evolution of the demographical process characterised by a birth rate of 10.8 per 1 000 inhabitants and an overall mortality rate of 12.8 per 1 000 inhabitants (in 2000) led to a life expectancy at birth of 67.3 years, 1.9 years higher than in 1996 (65.4 years).
At the beginning of 2001, Satu Mare county had 240.3 thousand of working age population, of which 157 thousand persons represented the employed civil population, that means 401 employed persons per 1 000 inhabitants. The employees, equally distributed by genders, held a share of 44.9% in the employed civil population. The net wage (1 769.9 thousand lei per month and per person), was under the North-West Region average (-7.4%) and much under the national average (-17.3%). Having an unemployment rate of 4.5% as of 31 December 2000, Satu Mare county is among the counties with the lowest unemployment rate.
Between 2000 and 2001 the educational activity of the county was carried out by 512 educational units, of which 236 kindergartens, 247 primary and secondary schools, 3 vocational schools, 1 high school and 25 faculties.
In 2000, the public healthcare services were provided through 16 medical consultation centres, 175 medical cabinets (individual, grouped and associated) and 6 hospitals with 2 231 beds (6 beds per 1 000 inhabitants). There was also a preventorium with 50 beds, an orphanage, 7 nurseries and 6 pharmacies.
The private system provides with medical assistance services through 55 medical cabinets, 64 dentist clinics and provides medicines and sanitary materials through 50 private pharmacies and drugstores and 19 mixed pharmacies and drugstores.
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