Baranya (former county)

Baranya (Hungarian: Baranya, Croatian: Baranja, Serbian: Baranja or Барања, German: Branau) is the name of a historic administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in southern Hungary (the present county Baranya) and north-eastern Croatia (part of the Osijek-Baranja county). The capital of the county was Pécs.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Demographics
4 Subdivisions

[edit] Geography

Baranya county was located in Baranya region. It shared borders with the Hungarian counties Somogy, Tolna, Bács-Bodrog and Verőce (the latter county was part of Croatia-Slavonia). The county stretched along the rivers Drave (north bank) and Danube (west bank), up to their confluence. Its area was 5,176 km² around 1910.

[edit] History

Baranya county arose as one of the first comitatus of the Kingdom of Hungary, in the 11th century.

In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire conquered Baranya, and included it into the sanjak of Mohacs, an Ottoman administrative unit, with the seat in the city of Mohacs.

In the end of the 17th century, Baranya was captured by Habsburg Empire, and was included into Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary.

In 1918, the entire Baranya was captured by Serbian troops and was administered by the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

By the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, the territory of the county was divided between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed to Yugoslavia in 1929) and Hungary. The south-east of the county was assigned to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, while the remainder was assigned to Hungary, and today it is part of the present Hungarian county Baranya, which also include some lands in the west that were not part of the historic Baranya county (After World War II the district of Szigetvár (previously part of Somogy county) was transferred to Baranya county).

Since 1991, when Croatia became independent from Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav part of pre-1918 Baranya county is part of Croatia (between 1991 and 1995 it was part of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, while between 1995 and 1997 it was part of UN-administered Srem-Baranja Oblast). In modern times there is a Magyar and Serb minority in Croatian Baranja and a Croatian minority in Hungarian Baranya.

[edit] Demographics

According to the census of 1910, the county had 352,478 inhabitants.

Population by language (1910 census):

Hungarian = 199,659
German = 112,297
Serbian = 13,048
Croatian = 10,159

[edit] Subdivisions

In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of Baranya county were:

Districts (járás)
District	Capital
Baranyavár (Croatian: Branjin)	Dárda (Croatian: Darda)
Hegyhát	Sásd
Mohács	Mohács
Pécs	Pécs
Pécsvárad	Pécsvárad
Siklós	Siklós
Szentlőrinc	Szentlőrinc
Urban counties (törvényhatósági jogú város)
Pécs