Satu Mare (; ; ; or ) is a city in Romania with a population of 91,520 (2021). It is the capital of Satu Mare County as well as the centre of the Satu Mare metropolitan area. It lies in the region of Maramureș, broadly part of Transylvania. Mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum as ("Zotmar's fort"), the city has a history going back to the Middle Ages. Today, it is an academic, cultural, industrial, and business centre in the Nord-Vest development region.

Geography

Satu Mare is situated in Satu Mare County, in northwest Romania, on the river Someș, from the border with Hungary and from the border with Ukraine. The city is located at an altitude of on the Lower Someș alluvial plain, spreading out from the Administrative Palace at 25 October Square. The boundaries of the municipality contain an area of .

From a geomorphologic point of view, the city is located on the Someș Meadow on both sides of the river, which narrows in the vicinity of the city and widens upstream and downstream from it; flooded during heavy rainfall, the field has various geographical configurations at the edge of the city (sand banks, valleys, micro-depressions).

The formation of the current terrain of the city, dating from the late Pliocene in the Tertiary period, is linked to the clogging of the Pannonian Sea. Layers of soil were created from deposits of sand, loess and gravel, and generally have a thickness of –. Over this base, decaying vegetation gave rise to podsolic soils, which led to favorable conditions for crops (cereals, vegetables, fruit trees).

Name

The Hungarian name of the town Szatmár is believed to come from the personal name Zotmar, as the 13th-century Gesta Hungarorum gives the name of the 10th-century fortified settlement at the site of today's Satu Mare as ("Zotmar's fort"). The name Satu Mare, which means "great village" in Romanian, was used for the first time by the priest Moise Sora Novac in the 19th century. An older Romanian name, Sătmar, was formally replaced by the current one in 1925.

History

thumb|Kossuth Park, 1903

thumb|[[Firemen's Tower (Satu Mare)|Firemen's Tower, built 1904]]

Archaeological evidence from Țara Oașului, Ardud, Medieșu Aurit, Homoroade, etc. clearly shows settlements in the area dating to the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. There is also evidence that the local Dacian population remained there after the Roman conquest in 101/106 AD. Later, these lands may have formed part of Menumorut's holdings; one of the important defensive fortresses – , dating to the 10th century – was at Satu Mare, as mentioned in the Gesta Hungarorum. After Stephen I of Hungary created the Kingdom of Hungary in the year 1000, German colonists were settled at the periphery of the city (Villa Zotmar), brought in by Stephen's wife, the Bavarian princess Gisela of Hungary. Later, they were joined by more German colonists from beyond the Someș River, in Mintiu.

A royal free city since the 13th century, Satu Mare changed hands several times in the 15th century until the Báthory family took possession of the citadel in 1526, proceeding to divert the Someș's waters in order to defend the southern part of the citadel; thus, the fortress remained on an island linked to the main roads by three bridges over the Someș. In 1562 the citadel was besieged by Ottoman armies led by Pargalı İbrahim Pasha of Buda and Maleoci Pasha of Timișoara. Then the Habsburgs besieged it, leading the fleeing Transylvanian armies to set it on fire. The Austrian general Lazar Schwendi ordered the citadel to be rebuilt after the plans of Italian architect Ottavio Baldigara; using an Italian system of fortifications, the new structure would be pentagonal with five towers. In the Middle Ages, Satu Mare and Mintiu were two distinct entities. On 2 January 1721, Emperor Charles VI recognised the union, at the same time granting Satu Mare the status of royal free city.

The city's importance was linked to the transportation and commerce of salt from nearby Ocna Dejului (, ), possibly already at a very early date. By the Treaty of Trianon, Satu Mare officially ceased to be part of Hungary becoming part of Romania. In 1940, the Second Vienna Award gave back Northern Transylvania, including Satu Mare, to Hungary. In October 1944, the city was captured by the Soviet Red Army. After 1945, the city became again part of Romania. Soon afterwards, a Communist regime came to power, lasting until the 1989 revolution. In the early 18th century, Jews were allowed to settle in Sathmar. Some of them became involved in large-scale agriculture, becoming landlords or lessees, or were active in trade and industry, or distilled brandy and leased taverns on crown estates. In 1715, when Sathmar became a royal town, they were expelled, beginning to resettle in the 1820s. Another Hasidic rabbi, Aharon Roth, the founder of the Shomrei Emunim and Toldot Aharon communities in Jerusalem, was also active in Satu Mare. Six trains left Satu Mare for Auschwitz-Birkenau, starting on 19 May 1944, each carrying approximately 3300 persons. The trains passed through Kassa (Košice) on 19, 22, 26, 29, 30 May and 1 June. In total, 18,863 Jews were deported from Satu Mare, Carei and the surrounding localities. Of these, 14,440 were killed. Only a small number of the survivors returned to Satu Mare after the war, but a number of Jews belonging to linguistically and culturally different groups from all parts of Romania settled in the city. The majority of them later emigrated to Israel. By 1970, the town's Jewish population numbered 500,

In 2004, a Holocaust memorial was dedicated in the Decebal Street Synagogue's courtyard. Aside from the synagogues, two Jewish cemeteries also remain.

Among the notable members of the local Jewish community have been historian Ignác Acsády, parliamentary deputies Ferenc Chorin and Kelemen Samu, politician Oszkár Jászi, writers Gyula Csehi, Rodion Markovits, Sándor Dénes, and , painter Pál Erdös, Jacob Reinitz and director György Harag.

{| class="wikitable" border="0"

|-

|+ Historical population of Satu Mare

|-

! Year

! Population

! Romanians

! Hungarians

|-

|1880

| 20,531

|7.9%

|83.1%

|-

|1890

| 21,874

|8.1%

|89.9%

|-

|1900

| 28,339

|7.8%

|89.01%

|-

|1910

| 36,460

|6.3%

|91.4%

|-

|1920

| 38,807

|15.2%

|63.6%

|-

|1930

| 53,010

|28.9%

|57.1%

|-

|1941

| 53,406

|6.6%

|90.2%

|-

|1956

| 53,672

|36.5%

|58.2%

|-

|1966

| 69,769

|44.2%

|54.9%

|-

|1977

| 103,544

|51.04%

|47.2%

|-

|1992

| 131,987

|55.8%

|43.2%

|-

|2002

| 115,142

|57.9%

|39.3%

|-

|2011

|}

Politics

thumb|[[Administrative Palace, Satu Mare|Administrative Palace (City Hall) in Satu Mare, completed in 1984]]

Administration

The city government is headed by a mayor. Since 2016, the office is held by Gábor Kereskényi. Decisions are approved and discussed by the local council made up of 23 elected councillors. The city is divided into 12 districts laid out radially. One of these, Sătmărel (Szatmárzsadány), is a separate village administered by the city.

  • 14 Mai
  • Carpați I
  • Carpați II
  • Centrul Nou
  • Cloșca
  • Crișan
  • Gelu
  • Horea
  • Menumorut
  • Sătmărel
  • Soarelui
  • Solidarității

Additionally, as Satu Mare is the capital of Satu Mare County, the city hosts the palace of the prefecture, the headquarters of the county council and the prefect, who is appointed by Romania's central government. Like all other local councils in Romania, the Satu Mare local council, the county council and the city's mayor are elected every four years by the population. The city is at the center of the Satu Mare metropolitan area, a metropolitan area established in 2013, with a population of 243,600, and which includes 26 cities, towns and communes.

The Satu Mare City Council, elected at the 2020 local elections, is composed of the following parties:

{| class="wikitable"

! style="background:#ccc" |   

! style="background:#ccc" |Party

! style="background:#ccc" |Seats in 2020

! style="background:#ccc" colspan="12" |Current Council

|-

|  

|Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ)

|style="text-align: right" |12

|  

|  

|  

|  

|  

|  

|  

|  

|  

|  

|  

|  

|-

|  

|Save Romania Union (USR)

|style="text-align: right" |4

|  

|  

|  

|  

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

|-

|  

|National Liberal Party (PNL)

|style="text-align: right" |4

|  

|  

|  

|  

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

|-

|  

|Social Democratic Party (PSD)

|style="text-align: right" |3

|  

|  

|  

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

| 

|}

The city day is 14 May, which commemorates the devastating floods that affected the city in 1970, although it is also a day of rebirth.

Justice system

Satu Mare has a complex judicial organisation, as a consequence of its status of county capital. The Satu Mare Court of Justice is the local judicial institution and is under the purview of the Satu Mare County Tribunal, which also exerts its jurisdiction over the courts of Carei, Ardud, Negrești-Oaș, Tășnad and Livada. Appeals from these tribunals' verdicts, and more serious cases, are directed to the Oradea Court of Appeals. Satu Mare also hosts the county's commercial and military tribunals. City Hall has its own community police force, Poliția Comunitară located on Universului Alley, dealing with local community issues. Satu Mare also houses the county's gendarmerie inspectorate.

Transport

Road

<!-- Deleted image removed: thumb|250px|[[Irisbus Citelis]] -->

<!-- Deleted image removed: thumb|250px|[[Satu Mare railway station]] -->

Satu Mare has a complex system of transportation, providing road, air and rail connections to major cities in Romania and Europe. The city is an important road and rail hub located near the borders with Hungary and Ukraine. The city is connected to other major Romanian cities by road (30px|E81 European route E81, 30px|671 European route E671 and 30px|E58 European route E58) and by rail (CFR Main Line 400). The total number of automobiles registered in Satu Mare was 82,000 in 2008. The city has around 400 streets with a total length of and cover an area of .

Railway

thumb|Bilingual town name at Satu Mare Railway station

Satu Mare Rail Station, located about north of the city centre, is situated on the Căile Ferate Române Line 400 (Brașov – Siculeni – Deda – Dej – Baia Mare), on Line 402 (Oradea – Săcueni – Carei – Satu Mare – Halmeu) In addition, there are various taxi companies serving the city. It is worth mentioning that Satu Mare had a trolleybus system in the past, created on 15 November 1994 but has been closed in 2005.

Airport

The city is served by the Satu Mare International Airport , located south of the city, with a concrete runway, one of the longest in Romania, with TAROM and Wizz Air operating regular flights to Bucharest, London and Antalya (seasonal only).

Sports

Football (soccer) is the most popular recreational sport in Satu Mare. There are two major football clubs in Satu Mare: Olimpia and Someșul Oar. There are two football stadiums in Satu Mare: Stadionul Olimpia with 18,000 seats and Someșul Stadium with 3,000 seats.

Other popular recreational activities include fencing, handball, bowling, women's basketball, karate and chess.

The local women's basketball team CSM Satu Mare is one of the best in the Romanian league; it finished third in the 2008/2009 season playoffs. The team plays its home matches in the largest indoor arena in the city, the LPS Arena, which has a capacity of 400 seats. to train and to participate in local tennis competitions alongside his fellow Davis Cup team member, Rareș Cuzdriorean, who is also a Satu Mare native with Cypriot citizenship.

Fencing

Satu Mare has a tradition in fencing dating to 1885, and is the city that has supplied the most world and Olympic champions in Europe. Names like Ecaterina Stahl, Marcela Moldovan, Suzana and Ștefan Ardeleanu, Petru Kuki, Rudolf Luczki, Samuilă Melczhner, Geza Tere and in particular Alexandru Csipler figure prominently in the annals of Romanian fencing. The last four also formed the core of the city's fencing school, winning major local and international tournaments. Top results for which there is evidence date to 1935, when the local foil team, Olimpia Satu Mare, lost against CFR Timișoara by a score of 15–10 in the national final, while Rudolf Luczki won the sabre finals held in Cluj-Napoca. In 1973, the first signaling device in Romania was used in Satu Mare; this has been characterised as "a veritable revolution" for Romanian fencing.

Economy

thumb|Head office of the Directorate for Agriculture and Food Industry

Satu Mare benefits from its proximity to the borders with Hungary and Ukraine, which makes it a prime location for logistical and industrial parks.

Companies that have established production facilities in Satu Mare are Voestalpine, Dräxlmaier Group, Gotec Group, Anvis Group, Schlemmer, Casco Schützhelme and Zollner Elektronik in the industrial sector; FrieslandCampina in the food sector; Radici Group in the textile sector; and Saint-Gobain and Boissigny in the wood industry.

Currently the largest private employer in Satu Mare is the German automotive company Dräxlmaier Group which owns since 1998 an electric engine components factory in the city and has around 3,600 employees. The factory supplies automotive wiring especially to the German car manufacturer Daimler AG but it also supplied wiring to another car manufacturer Porsche for its Porsche Panamera model. The Swedish company Electrolux owns a kitchen stove factory in the city acquired in 1997, that has a surface area of and 1,800 employees. The facility has an annual production capacity of around 1.2 million units and the majority of the Zanussi brand kitchen stoves in Europe are manufactured there. The Austrian company Voestalpine owns, since 2004, a steel tubes production facility with an annual capacity of 50 million units per year. The German company Arcandor has its main Romanian office established in Satu Mare. The subsidiary, accounting for the region formed by Romania and Hungary, is the most important among the 16 subsidiaries in Europe in terms of the percentage of sales through online orders having in 2008 total orders of €19.3 million. The company also owns a logistic facility and a call center in the city.

Satu Mare's retail sector is fairly well-developed; a number of international companies such as Carrefour, Auchan, Kaufland, Metro Point, Lidl and Penny Market have supermarkets or hypermarkets in the city. There is also a regional mall, Shopping City Satu Mare, with a gross leasable area (GLA) of , DIY stores (Dedeman, Brico Dépôt), and several other shopping centers: Grand Mall of , Plaza Europa of and Someșul Mall, of .

There is also an industrial park called Satu Mare Industrial Park located at the edge of the city on a 70 ha surface.

Education

Universities

thumb|Former Reformed College (left)

Satu Mare is home to the Commercial Academy of Satu Mare and several other branches of important Romanian universities:

  • Babeș-Bolyai University
  • Vasile Goldiș West University of Arad
  • Doamna Stanca National College with the most important being:
  • The Grigore Moisil Gymnasium (), founded in 1903 and named after the mathematician Grigore Moisil.
  • The Ion Creangă Gymnasium (), founded in 1990 and named after the writer Ion Creangă.
  • The Lucian Blaga Gymnasium (), founded in 1996 by Ioan Viman and named after the philosopher and writer Lucian Blaga.

Culture

Satu Mare has a county museum, an art museum, and a theatre, the North Theatre, built in 1889 which has both a Hungarian and a Romanian section. Concerts are given by the “Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic”, formerly the state symphonic orchestra of Satu Mare, in a concert hall in a wing of the Dacia Hotel. The county library had 320.000 books in 1997, including a special bibliophile collections of over 70.000 volumes.

Tourism

thumb|[[Dacia Hotel]]

Major tourists attractions are:

  • Administrative Palace, at , one of the tallest buildings in Romania
  • Capitoline Wolf statue
  • Chain Church
  • Dacia Hotel
  • Decebal Street Synagogue
  • Firemen's Tower, a tall tower
  • Roman Catholic Cathedral

Media

Newspapers

  • Informația Zilei – daily local newspaper
  • Gazeta de Nord-Vest – daily local newspaper
  • Cronica Sătmăreană – daily local newspaper
  • Friss Újság – daily local newspaper in Hungarian language
  • Szatmári Magyar Hírlap – daily local newspaper in Hungarian language

TV stations

  • TV1 Satu Mare
  • Nord Vest TV
  • Pro TV Satu Mare
  • Informația TV

Radio stations

  • Radio City Satu Mare
  • Radio Unu
  • Radio Transilvania
  • Radio ZU
  • Kiss FM Satu Mare

Online portal

  • Satu Mare Online
  • Sătmăreanul

Consulates

  • Honorary Consulate of Ukraine

Natives

;Romania

  • Ioana Boitor
  • Gavril Both
  • Ciprian Brata
  • Vlad Bujor
  • Corina Ciorbă
  • Cosmin Costinaș
  • Daniel David
  • Ioan Donca
  • Mircea Florian
  • Florin Gardoș
  • Gábor Gerstenmájer
  • Emanuel Gyenes
  • Alexandru Karikaș
  • Simona Miculescu
  • Dorel Moiș
  • Ioan Mircea Pașcu
  • Vasile Paulovics
  • Ciprian Prodan
  • Daniel Prodan
  • Zoltan Ritli
  • Ovidiu Ioan Silaghi
  • Sergiu Suciu
  • Josef Szepeschy
  • Dan Zaviceanu
  • Ervin Zsiga

;Hungary

  • Dániel Antal
  • Árpád Árvay
  • Antal Bánhidi
  • László Bánhidi
  • László Botka
  • Gábor Darvas
  • Arányi Dezső
  • András Domahidy
  • Jenő Dsida
  • Mónika Esztán
  • Zoltán Horváth
  • József Kürthy
  • Gyula Lengyel
  • Noémi Matsutani
  • Vince Nagy
  • György Nyisztor
  • Richárd Osváth
  • Zoltán Pánczél
  • Moshe Dovid Winternitz

;Germany

  • Zita-Eva Funkenhauser
  • Monika Weber-Koszto
  • Rita König
  • Susanne König

;Canada

  • Corneliu Chisu
  • Ernest Klein

;USA

  • Ernie Grunfeld
  • Yoel Levi

;Cyprus

  • Rareș Cuzdriorean

;Israel

  • Miriam Fried

International relations

Twin towns and sister cities

Satu Mare is twinned with:

  • Zutphen, Netherlands, since 1970
  • Wolfenbüttel, Germany, since 1974
  • Nyíregyháza, Hungary, since 2000
  • Berehove, Ukraine, since 2007
  • Rzeszów, Poland, since 2007

<gallery>

File:Cladire Strada Stefan cel Mare nr. 1 Satu Mare.JPG|Stephen the Great street

File:Biserica SM.jpg|Roman Catholic cathedral

File:Satu Mare Chains Church.JPG|Chain Church

File:Satu Mare Greek Catholic Cathedral 5.JPG|SS. Michael and Gabriel Cathedral

File:SM8.jpg|Satu Mare Synagogue

File:Hotel Dacia, Satu Mare Romania detail 1.JPG|Hotel Dacia, detail

File:RO SM Satu Mare Administrative palace.png|25 October Square (The New City Centre)

</gallery>

See also

  • Satmar (Hasidic dynasty), a Jewish religious group named after this city
  • List of companies based in Satu Mare
  • List of natives and inhabitants of Satu Mare

References

Official websites

  • Satu Mare administration official site
  • Satu Mare County Prefecture
  • Satu Mare Municipal Council
  • Transurban (Public Transport Company) official site
  • Satu Mare International Airport

Unofficial websites

  • Satu Mare Online
  • Satu-Mare.com
  • Szatmar.ro

Other