Bethausen ( hu, Bethlenháza; german: Bethausen;
Banat Swabian
The Banat Swabians are an ethnic German population in the former Kingdom of Hungary in Central-Southeast Europe, part of the Danube Swabians. They emigrated in the 18th century to what was then the Austrian Empire's Banat of Temeswar province, la ...
: ''Pettlenhaas'';
often Romanianized Betleaz) is a
commune in
Timiș County,
Romania. It is composed of six villages: Bethausen (commune seat), Cladova, Cliciova, Cutina, Leucușești and Nevrincea.
Geography
Bethausen is located in the northeast of
Timiș County, on the right bank of
Bega River, 26 km from
Lugoj and 20 km from
Făget.
The relief is characterized by the predominance of the smooth surfaces of the Banat Plain, which extends as a gulf into the hills on Bega Valley. In the north, the commune's territory includes the last extensions of the Lipova Piedmont, and in the southeast the Făget Hills, located at the foot of the
Poiana Ruscă Massif, from which they are separated by a chain of contact micro-depressions.
The climate has a temperate character, with warm summers, not too cold winters, quite early springs and sometimes very long autumns.
The vegetation is rich in species. The plains and the meadows are used for various crops:
wheat,
barley,
oat,
corn
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
,
cabbage
Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of ''Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.&nb ...
,
melons,
potatoes
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...
, orchards, etc. The commune's territory is part of the vegetation area of deciduous forests (
Turkey oak Turkey oak is a common name for several species of oaks and may refer to:
*''Quercus cerris'', native to southeastern Europe and Asia Minor
*''Quercus laevis
''Quercus laevis'', the turkey oak, is a member of the red oak group of oaks. It is nat ...
,
Hungarian oak,
sessile oak
''Quercus petraea'', commonly known as the sessile oak, Cornish oak, Irish Oak or durmast oak, is a species of oak tree native to most of Europe and into Anatolia and Iran. The sessile oak is the national tree of Ireland, and an unofficial embl ...
,
field maple,
ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
,
black locust, etc.).
History
Bethausen is one of the youngest villages in
Banat. It was founded in 1883 by colonization with
Germans coming from Zichandorf, on the hearth of the former Romanian village ''Becliza'' or ''Betlinești''.
Germans gave it the name ''Bethausen'', after the old name ''Betlinești'';
Hungarians called it ''Bethlenháza'' ("Bethlen's house"), and
Romanians ''Betleaz''.
In 1884 they built a Roman Catholic church here.
By 1890 the commune was part of the district of
Belinț.
Until 1990 it was a predominantly German locality, but after their exodus to
Germany, the Romanians became the majority.
Demographics
Bethausen had a population of 3,057 inhabitants at the 2011 census, up 1% from the 2002 census. Most inhabitants are
Romanians (90.97%), larger minorities being represented by
Ukrainians (4.84%) and
Hungarians (1.24%). For 2.26% of the population, ethnicity is unknown.
By religion, most inhabitants are
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
(78.02%), but there are also minorities of
Pentecostals (13.48%),
Roman Catholics (2.49%) and
Adventist
Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming (or the "Second Advent") of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher Wil ...
s (2%). For 2.29% of the population, religious affiliation is unknown.
References
{{Authority control
Communes in Timiș County
Localities in Romanian Banat