THE SMALL VILLAGES IN THE KRASSÓ-SZÖRÉNY COUNTRY (1910-2011)
Abstract
Based on the settlement network determined by geographical conditions, Caras-Severin (Krassó-Szörény) county has always been an area of the Banat (Bánság) traditionally characterized by small and tiny villages. Its settlement density reached 3.2 km2 per settlement, and there were 362 administratively autonomous settlements in the county at that time. The study introduces the development of tiny villages in Caras-Severin (Krassó-Szörény) county through the 20th century and their state at the beginning of the 21st century with regional differentiation. Researching the tiny villages of the county is highly important in more aspects. On the one hand, this region is located further from the borders of the Trianon Treaty, thus it is supposed that natural increase /decrease and internal migratory processes determined the population of these settlements, despite the fact that there was a continuous reproduction of the population from the Regat. However, newcomers did not move to tiny villages, thus they increased the population of towns and some mining villages temporarily, until the 1960s and 70s.
In terms of ethnic composition, the county can be regarded as more homogenous as compared to the whole area of the Banat (Bánság) and also to the counties of Timiș (Temes) and Torontal (Torontál). In 1910, out of the county’s total population 72% were Romanian, 11% German, 7.6% Hungarian, 3.3% Serbian, 0.65% Slovak and 0.5% Ruthenian. The relations within the traditional settlement network characterized by small and tiny villages changed fundamentally, partly because of the partition of the county, and partly because of the emergence of new focal points within the new network of towns. Areas along the Mures River, Dumbrava (Erdőhát) and settlements around the Poiana Ruscă Mountains (Ruszka-havas), which once belonged to the former county, were left without dynamic centres, thus outmigration accelerated. By 2011, 199 settlements became a tiny village, in 1910, only 50 settlements had a population of less than 500 people. Out of the settlements that have become tiny villages by today, four villages had a population of more than 2000 people in 1910 (Ciclova Montană [Csiklovabánya] 2001 people, Zgribești [Krassógombás] 2005 people, Ilidia (Illyéd) 2046 people, Visag (Krassóviszák) 2084 people). The demographic erosion has not been stronger in the past two decades than the former county average, thus in 2011, 13.6% of the total population lived in the 199 tiny villages investigated. The present state of tiny villages shows a much more complex picture than before, moreover the trend lasting until 1992 was reversed. Until the regime change (1990) the number of settlements whose population increased during the interval between two population censuses was decreasing continuously, however the number of tiny villages whose population increased between 1992 and 2002 was 38, while between 2002 and 2011 it was 30. The reason behind the population growth is not related to the Roma population. By today, a significant group of tiny villages (29) has almost completely depopulated. A high percentage of these villages are resided by Banatian (bánsági) ethnic minorities (e.g. Bunea mică [Bunyaszekszárd], Brebu Nou [Temesfő], Lindenfeld [Karánberek], Șumița [Cseherdős], Ravensca [Almásróna], etc.). Despite their unfavourable demographic processes, these villages preserved their settlement structure, however, by today even these structures have become in danger of disappearing. These settlements have not been at the centre of attention since the regime change either, the dead-end villages with aging population and unfavourable infrastructure are facing a hopeless situation, where only some buildings stand for a while as a reminder of the better days of the past.
