Oaș Country

Oaș Country
Țara Oașului
Ethnographic region of Romania

Map of Oaș Country
Country  Romania
Capital of Oaş Country Negrești-Oaș
Area
 • Total 755,30 km2 (29,160 sq mi)
Population 55,299
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)

Oaș Country (Romanian: Țara Oașului, Hungarian: Avasság) is an ethnographic and historical region of Romania located in the North-East part of Satu Mare County, 50 km from the city of Satu Mare, also 50 km from the city of Baia Mare. The total area is about 755,30  km². The capital of Oaș Country is Negrești-Oaș town. [1]

Boundaries

The Oaș Country extends from Turț - Gherța Mare - Gherța Mică (on the western side) all the way to Huta pass situated at an altitude of 604 m (in the East), from Cămărzana (in the North) to the mountains that surround Orașu Nou, Racșa and Vama (in the South).

Communes

The Oaș Country comprises the following communes:

Geography

The Oaș Depression has maximum altitudes of 400–500 m. Most of the human dwellings are situated alongside the river valleys that cross the Oaș Depression. In the Northern part of the depression there is the Lechincioara Basin which includes the Mare, Semănaturii and Lechincioarei valleys. In the southern part of Oaș Country there are the Tur, Alb and Rău rivers.

History

The first document that mentioned the Oaș Country dates from 1270, when the King of Hungary donated to a nobleman several villages from the South-Western boundary of the "country".

In that document the Oaș Country is mentioned as Terra Awas. Some historians claim that the origin of the word "Oaș" is the "Awas", which means a kind of deforestation or a clearing in the woods.

The Oaș Country was mentioned in the Chronicles of Grigore Ureche.

References

  1. ↑ Negrești-Oaș, capital of Oaș Country

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.