Sighetu Marmatiei
Encyclopedia
Sighetu Marmației (ˌsiɡetu marˈmat͡si.ej, also spelled Sighetul Marmației; or Siget; ; ; ; ), formerly Sighet, is a city (municipality
) in Maramureş County
near the Iza River
, in north-western Romania
. It administers five villages: Iapa, Lazu Baciului, Șugău, Valea Cufundoasă and Valea Hotarului.
, Săpânţa
, Câmpulung la Tisa
, Ocna Şugatag
, Giuleşti
, Vadu Izei
, Rona de Jos
and Bocicoiu Mare
communities in Romania, Bila Cerkva community and the Solotvyno
township in Ukraine
(Zakarpattia Oblast
).
The city's name derives from the Hungarian for "island in Máramaros
".
According to the 1910 census, the city had 21,370 inhabitants; these consisted of 17,542 (82.1%) Hungarian speakers, 2,002 (9.4%) Romanian, 1,257 (5.9%) German
, and 32 Ruthenian
speakers.
The number of Jews was 7981; they were included in the Hungarian and German language groups. There were
5850 Greek Catholics and 4901 Roman Catholics.
, the urban area was situated on an important route that followed the Tisza
Valley. The first mention of a settlement dates back to the 11th century, and the city as such was first mentioned in 1326. In 1352, it was a free royal town and the capital of Máramaros
comitatus
of the Kingdom of Hungary
.
From 1556, the settlement - like the Castle of Huszt - was a residence of Transylvanian Princes; from 1570 to 1733, the town and the county were part of the Principality of Transylvania
. In 1733, King Charles III
returned it and Máramaros County to his Hungarian domain.
Sighetu Marmației was one of the Romanian, Rusyn, and Jewish cultural and political centers in the Kingdom of Hungary. The Jewish community was led by the Teitelbaum family — who also led the Satmar
Hasidic
community.
It became part of the Kingdom of Romania
after World War I
(see Greater Romania
), and was again under Hungarian
administration during World War II
as a result of the Second Vienna Award
. The latter lasted until 1944 and in these years more than 20,000 Jews from Sighet would be sent to Auschwitz
(including the Nobel Peace Prize
winner Elie Wiesel
, born in Sighet) and other Nazi extermination camps. Nowadays there are only about 21 Jews living in Sighetu Marmației.
The Treaty of Paris
at the end of World War II
voided the Vienna Awards
, and Sighetu Marmației returned to Romania.
, the Securitate
ran the Sighet prison
as a place for political repression
of public figures who had been declared "class enemies
" — the most prominent of these was the former prime minister Iuliu Maniu
(who died there in 1953). The former prison is now a museum, part of the Memorial for the Victims of Communism.
Municipalities of Romania
A municipiu is a level of administrative subdivision in Romania, roughly equivalent to city in some English-speaking countries. This status is given to towns that are quite large and urbanized...
) in Maramureş County
Maramures County
Maramureș is a county of Romania, in the Maramureș region. The county seat is Baia Mare.- History :* The 10th century frontier county of Borsova was founded by Stephen I of Hungary. Since then Máramaros served as the north-eastern border of the Hungarian Kingdom until 1920, the Trianon Peace...
near the Iza River
Iza River
The Iza River is a tributary of the Tisa River in Romania.-References:* Administraţia Naţională Apelor Române - Cadastrul Apelor - Bucureşti* Institutul de Meteorologie şi Hidrologie - Rîurile României - Bucureşti 1971* Capitolul 3 Apa...
, in north-western Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. It administers five villages: Iapa, Lazu Baciului, Șugău, Valea Cufundoasă and Valea Hotarului.
Geography
Neighboring communities include: SarasăuSarasau
Sarasău is a commune in Maramureş County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Sarasău....
, Săpânţa
Sapânta
Săpânţa is a commune in Maramureş County in northern Romania, 15 kilometers northwest of Sighet and just south of the Tisza River. It is composed of a single village, Săpânţa....
, Câmpulung la Tisa
Câmpulung la Tisa
Câmpulung la Tisa is a commune in Maramureş County, northern Romania. It is composed of a single village, Câmpulung la Tisa.In 2002, the commune had 2484 inhabitants, of whom 79% were Hungarians, 17.1% Romanians, 2.7% Roma, and 0.9% Ukrainians...
, Ocna Şugatag
Ocna Sugatag
Ocna Șugatag is a commune in Maramureș County, northern Romania. It is composed of four villages: Breb, Hoteni, Ocna Şugatag and Sat-Şugatag. A health resort, it is well-known for its salt water.-External links:/ *...
, Giuleşti
Giulesti, Maramures
Giuleşti is a commune in Maramureş County, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Berbeşti, Fereşti, Giuleşti and Mănăstirea.-References:...
, Vadu Izei
Vadu Izei
Vadu Izei is a commune in Maramureş County, Romania. It is composed of two villages, Vadu Izei and Valea Stejarului....
, Rona de Jos
Rona de Jos
Rona de Jos is a commune in Maramureş County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Rona de Jos....
and Bocicoiu Mare
Bocicoiu Mare
Bocicoiu Mare is a commune in Maramureş County, Romania. It lies 9 kilometres east of Sighetu Marmaţiei; across the Tisza River from Velykyy Bychkiv, Ukraine.-Villages:...
communities in Romania, Bila Cerkva community and the Solotvyno
Solotvyno
Solotvyno is a village in the Tiachiv Raion in the Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine, located close to the border with Romania, on the right bank of the Tisza River . The village's name comes from the nearby salt mine.Solotvyno was first mentioned ca. 1360...
township in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(Zakarpattia Oblast
Zakarpattia Oblast
The Zakarpattia Oblast is an administrative oblast located in southwestern Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Uzhhorod...
).
The city's name derives from the Hungarian for "island in Máramaros
Máramaros
Máramaros is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in north-western Romania and western Ukraine...
".
Demographics
The city has 44,185 inhabitants.- RomaniansRomaniansThe Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
- 79.73% - Hungarians - 15.80%
- UkrainiansUkrainians of RomaniaThe Ukrainians are the third-largest ethnic minority in Romania. According to the 2002 Romanian census they number 61,091 people, making up 0.3% of the total population. Ukrainians claim that the number is actually 250,000-300,000. Ukrainians mainly live in northern Romania, in areas close to...
- 2.97% - RomasRoma minority in RomaniaThe Roma constitute one of the major minorities in Romania. According to the 2002 census, they number 535,140 people or 2.5% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians...
- 1.08%
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and 32 Ruthenian
Rusyn language
Rusyn , also known in English as Ruthenian, is an East Slavic language variety spoken by the Rusyns of Central Europe. Some linguists treat it as a distinct language and it has its own ISO 639-3 code; others treat it as a dialect of Ukrainian...
speakers.
The number of Jews was 7981; they were included in the Hungarian and German language groups. There were
5850 Greek Catholics and 4901 Roman Catholics.
History
Inhabited since the Hallstatt periodHallstatt culture
The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...
, the urban area was situated on an important route that followed the Tisza
Tisza
The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...
Valley. The first mention of a settlement dates back to the 11th century, and the city as such was first mentioned in 1326. In 1352, it was a free royal town and the capital of Máramaros
Máramaros
Máramaros is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in north-western Romania and western Ukraine...
comitatus
Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary)
A county is the name of a type of administrative units in the Kingdom of Hungary and in Hungary from the 10th century until the present day....
of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
.
From 1556, the settlement - like the Castle of Huszt - was a residence of Transylvanian Princes; from 1570 to 1733, the town and the county were part of the Principality of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
. In 1733, King Charles III
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI was the penultimate Habsburg sovereign of the Habsburg Empire. He succeeded his elder brother, Joseph I, as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia , Hungary and Croatia , Archduke of Austria, etc., in 1711...
returned it and Máramaros County to his Hungarian domain.
Sighetu Marmației was one of the Romanian, Rusyn, and Jewish cultural and political centers in the Kingdom of Hungary. The Jewish community was led by the Teitelbaum family — who also led the Satmar
Satmar (Hasidic dynasty)
Satmar is a Hasidic movement comprising mostly Hungarian and Romanian Hasidic Jewish Holocaust survivors and their descendants. It was founded and led by the late Hungarian-born Grand Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum , who was the rabbi of Szatmárnémeti, Hungary...
Hasidic
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism, from the Hebrew —Ḥasidut in Sephardi, Chasidus in Ashkenazi, meaning "piety" , is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that promotes spirituality and joy through the popularisation and internalisation of Jewish mysticism as the fundamental aspects of the Jewish faith...
community.
It became part of the Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
(see Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
), and was again under Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
administration during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as a result of the Second Vienna Award
Second Vienna Award
The Second Vienna Award was the second of two Vienna Awards arbitrated by the Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Rendered on August 30, 1940, it re-assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.-Prelude and historical background :After the World War I, the multi-ethnic...
. The latter lasted until 1944 and in these years more than 20,000 Jews from Sighet would be sent to Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
(including the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
winner Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
, born in Sighet) and other Nazi extermination camps. Nowadays there are only about 21 Jews living in Sighetu Marmației.
The Treaty of Paris
Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
The Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The...
at the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
voided the Vienna Awards
Vienna Awards
The Vienna Awards are two arbitral awards by which arbiters of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sought to enforce peacefully the claims of Hungary on territory it had lost in 1920 when it signed the Treaty of Trianon...
, and Sighetu Marmației returned to Romania.
Sighet prison
In the 1950s and 1960s, after the establishment of the Romanian communist regimeCommunist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
, the Securitate
Securitate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
ran the Sighet prison
Sighet prison
The Sighet prison, located in the town of Sighetu Marmaţiei, Maramureş county, Romania, was used by the communist regime to hold political prisoners...
as a place for political repression
Political repression
Political repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life of society....
of public figures who had been declared "class enemies
Enemy of the people
The term enemy of the people is a fluid designation of political or class opponents of the group using the term. The term implies that the "enemies" in question are acting against society as a whole. It is similar to the notion of "enemy of the state". The term originated in Roman times as ,...
" — the most prominent of these was the former prime minister Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician. A leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, he served as Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933, and, with Ion Mihalache, co-founded the National Peasants'...
(who died there in 1953). The former prison is now a museum, part of the Memorial for the Victims of Communism.
Natives
- David Weiss HalivniDavid Weiss HalivniDavid Weiss Halivni is an American-Israeli rabbi, scholar in the domain of Jewish Sciences and professor of Talmud.-Biography:...
- Simon HollósySimon HollósySimon Hollósy ; was a Hungarian painter. He was considered one of the greatest Hungarian representatives of 19th century Naturalism and Realism. Hollósy was not productive as an artist: he was in search of atmospheres and his productivity was confined to teaching...
- Chaim Tzvi TeitelbaumChaim Tzvi TeitelbaumRabbi Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum, , , the Sigheter Rebbe, author of Atzei Chaim, was the oldest son of Rabbi Chananyah Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum the Kedushas Yom Tov...
- Moshe TeitelbaumMoshe Teitelbaum (Satmar)Moshe Teitelbaum was a Hasidic rebbe and the world leader of the Satmar Hasidim, which is believed to be one of the largest Hasidic communities in the world, with some 120,000 followers.-Early life:...
- Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum (I)
- Yekusiel Yehuda Teitelbaum (II)
- Elie WieselElie WieselSir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
- Gisella PerlGisella PerlGisella Perl was a Jewish gynecologist who lived in Sighetu Marmaţiei, Romania , until 1944 when the Nazis invaded Hungary and deported its Jewish population....
- Joseph SzigetiJoseph SzigetiJoseph Szigeti was a Hungarian violinist.Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on the violin, and moved to Budapest with his father to study with the renowned pedagogue Jenő Hubay...
sometimes misspelled Sigheti - Géza FridGéza FridGéza Frid , was a Hungarian/Dutch composer and pianist.-Early years:Géza Frid was born in Máramarossziget in the Máramaros region of Hungary and studied piano and composition in Budapest with a.o. Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók. He settled in Amsterdam in 1929 and became a Dutch citizen in 1948...
- Marius BilaşcoMarius BilascoMarius Ioan Bilaşco is a Romanian footballer who plays for Tianjin Teda in the Chinese Super League...
- Monica IagărMonica IagarMonica Dinescu-Iagăr is a Romanian athlete competing in high jump. Her personal best jump is 2.02 metres....