Avram Iancu (until 1932 ''Chemenfoc'', from 1932 to 1950 ''Regina Maria''; ; ) is a commune in

Bihor County Bihor County (, ) is a county (județ) in western Romania. With a total area of , Bihor is Romania's 6th largest county geographically and the main county in the historical region of Crișana. Its capital city is Oradea (Nagyvárad). Toponymy ...

, in

Crișana Crișana (, , ) is a geographical and historical region of Romania named after the Criș (Körös) River and its three tributaries: the Crișul Alb, Crișul Negru, and Crișul Repede. In Romania, the term is sometimes extended to include areas ...

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 ...

. The commune is composed of three villages: Ant (''Ant''), Avram Iancu and Tămașda (''Tamáshida''). The majority of the population (96%) in Avram Iancu village is

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

. Overall, the commune is 74.7% Romanian, 15.6%

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

, and 9.6% Hungarian. The architecture of the commune is typical for a Romanian field village: the main street traverses the village, houses being equally distributed along it.

Location

Geographically, it is situated at the border of

with

Arad County Arad County () is an administrative division ( județ) of Romania roughly translated into county in the western part of the country on the border with Hungary, mostly in the region of Crișana and few villages in Banat. The administrative cente ...

and with

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 ...

, at exactly the same distance, , from the capital cities of the two counties,

Oradea Oradea (, , ; ; ) is a city in Romania, located in the Crișana region. It serves as the administrative county seat, seat of Bihor County and an economic, social, and cultural hub in northwestern Romania. The city lies between rolling hills on ...

and Arad. The commune is crossed by the European road E671. The nearest city is

Salonta Salonta (; , colloquially , ; ) is a municipiu, city in Bihor County, in the geographical region of Crișana, north-western Romania, near the Hungarian border. Population According to the 2021 Romanian census, 2021 census, Salonta has a popu ...

, to the north.

History

The first official documentation of human settlement in the area dates back to 1169. The document mentions a very small village called Villa Tamasd, which in fact is the village Tămașda, a component of the today commune. In the early 1600 the establishment was destroyed being caught in a battle between the Turkish and Hungarian armies. In 1700 the establishment and its surroundings were transformed in a fiefdom for a Hungarian noble. The today's village of Avram Iancu was founded in the early 1900s by Romanian colonists who came from the eastern region of Bihor County. They received here land from

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Ferdinand I of Romania Ferdinand I (Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad; 24 August 1865 – 20 July 1927), nicknamed ''Întregitorul'' ("the Unifier"), was King of Romania from 10 October 1914 until his death in 1927. Ferdinand was the second son of Leopold, Prince of Hoh ...

, the village being named Regina Maria after Ferdinand's wife, Queen Marie. In 1950, under the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

, it was renamed after the

1848 Revolution The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...

Romanian hero

Avram Iancu Avram Iancu (; ; 1824 – September 10, 1872) was a Transylvanian Romanian lawyer who played an important role in the local chapter of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire, Austrian Empire Revolutions of 1848–1849. He was especiall ...

Economy

Due to its fertile lands Avram Iancu is one of the biggest producers of agricultural products (vegetables) within Bihor County, supplying the markets for the neighboring cities with fresh high-quality vegetable products. During the communist times, there were just a few households doing intensive production on very small surfaces of land. After the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...

of 1989 the proportion of households employed in this activity boosted to over 80%, more than a half being specialized in extensive cultures on large areas of land.

Natives

* Iosif Matula (born 1958), engineer and politician * Dănilă Papp (1868–1950), Romanian officer who served in World War I and the Hungarian–Romanian War

References

{{LocalitiesBihor Communes in Bihor County Localities in Crișana