Nițchidorf (literally " Niczky's village"; ; , originally ''Kutas'') is a commune in

Timiș County Timiș () is a county (''județ'') of western Romania on the border with Hungary and Serbia, in the historical regions of Romania, historical region of Banat, with the county seat at Timișoara. It is the westernmost and the largest county in Ro ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. It is composed of three villages: Blajova, Duboz and Nițchidorf (commune seat).

Geography

The commune totals an area of , of which are agricultural land and are non-agricultural land. It is located in the plain area of

, in the hydrographic basin of the

Timiș River The Timiș or Tamiš (, , , ) is a river that flows through the Banat region of Romania and Serbia and joins the Danube near Pančevo, in northern Serbia. Due to its position in the region, it has been labeled as the "spine of the Banat". N ...

, bordering

Caraș-Severin County Caraș-Severin () is a county ( județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia. The majority of its territory lies within the historical region of Banat, with a few northeastern villages considered part of Transylvania. The county seat is Reșița ...

and the hilly area on the river corridor.

History

Traces of a fortress were discovered on the nearby Schlossberg ("Castle Hill"; ). According to Hungarian historians and

Felix Milleker Felix Milleker ( Serbian-Cyrillic: Феликс Милекер, Serbian-Latin: Feliks Mileker, Hungarian: Felix Mil(l)eker; pronounced Feliksz Mileker or magyarised Bódog Milleker; 14 January 1858, Vršac, Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of ...

, quoted by , there was a medieval settlement here, attested in 1370 with the name ''Kwtus''. In 1410 it appears as an annex of the parish of Duboz. During the Turkish occupation of

Banat Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...

(1552–1718), the locality disappeared. The current village was founded in 1784–1786 during the third wave of colonization of

, under Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

. At first, only 200 families were settled here. The origin of the settlers was from

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

Schwarzwald The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is the source of the Da ...

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

, etc. Later came settlers from today's

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

. It was named after Count Kristóf Niczky, the then prefect who took care of its colonization. So it was called ''Niczkydorf'' or "Niczky's village". The Romanians from the neighboring villages called it ''Nichișoara'', and today's name is the Romanianized form of the original one. For two centuries it was an almost exclusively German, Roman Catholic village. The Swabians built the Roman Catholic church in 1825. There was also a mill, which burned down in 1930. After the union of Banat with Romania, the village remained German. The exodus of the Germans began after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and accelerated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Today, Nițchidorf is mostly Romanian.

Demographics

Nițchidorf had a population of 1,523 inhabitants at the 2011 census, down 4% from the 2002 census. Most inhabitants are

Romanians Romanians (, ; dated Endonym and exonym, exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group and nation native to Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Sharing a Culture of Romania, ...

(88.77%), larger minorities being represented by

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

(3.22%),

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...

(1.71%) and

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

(1.38%). For 4.4% 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 ...

(84.24%), but there are also minorities of

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

s (3.48%),

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

s (3.02%),

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 Willi ...

s (2.63%) and

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

s (1.12%). For 4.46% of the population, religious affiliation is unknown.

Notable people

Sebastian Kräuter Sebastian Kräuter (December 22, 1922, in Nițchidorf, Banat – January 29, 2008, in Timișoara) was the Roman Catholic bishop of the Timișoara diocese in Romania between 1990 and 1999. Biography Sebastian Kräuter was the son of businessman Ba ...

(1922–2008), Roman Catholic bishop * (b. 1950), writer, translator and journalist *

Herta Müller Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was born in Nițchidorf (; ), Timiș County in Romania; her native languages are German and Romanian. Si ...

(b. 1953), writer and recipient of the 2009

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nitchidorf Communes in Timiș County Localities in Romanian Banat Former Danube Swabian communities in Romania