Voivodeni (also Sânioana or Sântioana; ; ) is a commune in Mureș County, Transylvania, Romania. It is composed of two villages, Toldal (Toldalag) and Voivodeni.Arcanum Kézikönyvtár: Historical-administrative place name book of Transylvania, Banat and Partium . Accessed on July 6, 2019. Resource is in Hungarian.Population numbers on 1.01.2009 in Romania. Archived from the original 10-09-2012. Cited on July 6, 2019.Structura Etno-demografică a României (Romanian). Archived from the original 7-29-2013. Cited on July 6, 2019. The former village is much less populated than the latter.
This commune lies in the Transylvanian Plain and is centrally located in Romania. It is about north of Bucharest, about southwest of the city of Reghin, about north of the county seat of Târgu Mureș, and about northwest of Brașov.Physical distances are calculated according to the coordinates of settlements. It is also at an average altitude of , less than the average height where a landmass is considered a mountain (2,000 feet).
The commune has a hemiboreal climate with the average temperature as , with the warmest in July at about and the coldest in December at about .Peel, MC; Finlayson, B L. "Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification ". Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 11: 1633-1644. doi: 10.5194/hess-11-1633-2007. Retrieved on July 6, 2019.NASA Earth Observations Data Set Index . NASA.NASA Earth Observations: Rainfall (1 month - TRMM) .NASA / Tropical Rainfall Monitoring Mission The average rainfall is about 31 inches a year, with about 5 inches in May and about 1.5 inches in February on average.
History The first mention of the town was in 1332, under the name of Sancto Johanne.Heinz Heltmann, Gustav Servatius (ed.): Travel Guide Transylvania. Kraft, Würzburg 1993, , p. 517.Institute of Archeology – Voivodeni . Accessed on July 6, 2019. Romanian language resource. Archaeological finds have shown that the area comprising the Voivodendi village was first settled during the Bronze period. Evidence of settlement has been discovered on a hill called Benghát, which stands tall, as well as signs of Roman presence, including a nearby Roman road. In the commune town of Toldal, there are definite traces of Roman settlers, who primarily engaged in agricultural production.
During the Kingdom of Hungary, the commune belonged to the Régen district. It was part of the Székely Land region of the historical Transylvania province. This was kept when the Kingdom was absorbed into the Austrian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. There was an administrative reorganization of Transylvania, and it was attached to Maros-Torda County.
After the Hungarian–Romanian War of 1918–1919 and the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, the commune became part of the Kingdom of Romania, and was attached to Mureș County. In 1940, the Second Vienna Award granted Northern Transylvania to Hungary and the locality was held by Hungary until 1944. During this time, the small Jewish community in the area was exterminated by the Nazis. After Soviet occupation, the Romanian administration returned, and the village became officially part of Romania in March 1945. Between 1952 and 1960, the commune fell within the Magyar Autonomous Region, between 1960 and 1968 the Mureș-Magyar Autonomous Region. In 1968, the region was abolished, and since then, the commune has been part of Mureș County.
The commune features the Zichy Castle, with relics from the Roman area and Hungarian presence.Kovacs Lorant, "Assessment of the environmental value of the Zichy Castle Park in Voivodeni, Romania – Brief description ," 2014. Notable people who have lived in the commune include politician István Dán and biologist (and geographer) Pál Samu, born on June 28, 1935.
Demographics
The highest number of people living in the commune, since recording of population information began in 1850, was in 1956, with a total of 2,849 inhabitants.Census 1850-2002, last update 2 November 2008 (PDF, 1 MB, Hungarian).Official 2002 Census Statistics .Census of the Mureş County from 1850 to 2002 .The population of Voivodeni in 2007 on the website of the National Institute of Statistics of Romania ."Population on January 1, 2009". INSSE. Retrieved on July 6, 2019. Archived from the original July 26, 2009.
According to the 2011 census, the population of the Voivodeni commune was 1,756 inhabitants."Population and Housing Census 2002 - population of administrative units by ethnicity". Kulturális Innovációs Alapítvány (KIA.hu - Cultural Foundation for Innovation). Accessed July 6, 2019. This was a decrease from the previous census, in 2002, when 1,957 were living in the commune. Of the inhabitants, about 60% were Székely Hungarians, while the rest were either Romanians (28.4%) or Roma (9.05%), with about 2% having an unknown ethnicity.Final results of the 2011 Census:"Tab8. Ethnic stable population – counties, municipalities, towns, communes " . National Institute of Statistics of Romania. July 2013. Accessed July 6, 2019. In terms of religious belief, most were Reformed (about 57%), while the rest were either Orthodox (about 28%), Seventh-Day Adventists (about 4%), Jehovah's Witnesses (3.4%), Roman Catholic (2.5%), or non-religious (1.6%).Final results of the 2011 Census:"Tab13. Stable population by religion – counties, municipalities, towns, communes ". National Institute of Statistics of Romania. July 2013. Accessed on July 6, 2019. About 2% of the population had religious beliefs that could not be determined.
At the 2021 census, the commune had a population of 1,575; of those, 55.05% were Hungarians, 28.19% Romanians, 10.98% Roma, and 5.46% of unknown ethnicity.
Present day
The commune of Voivodeni is administered by a mayor and a local council which is composed of 11 councilors. The Mayor is Vasile Boer, from the Social Democratic Party, who was elected in 2012. The local council has the following composition of political parties after local elections in 2016:^'List of Competitors Obtaining Mandates ' (XLSX). Central Electoral Bureau for the 2016 local elections. Accessed July 6, 2019.
Social Democratic Party (Romania) – 7 seats Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania – 3 seats Hungarian Civic Party – 1 seat
Dance classes are held in the commune, like other parts of Transylvania, and churches made of wood are still standing.Lucy Mallows and Rudolf Abraham, Transylvania (US: Bradt Travel Guides, 2012), p 105.Nuria Sanz, Living Wooden Culture Throughout Europe (Council of Europe, 2002), p 59. The economy of the town is based on agriculture and livestock. The municipality is also located on the regional road DJ154J Breaza – Glodeni, near the national road Târgu Mureș – Reghin.
Tourist attractions in the commune include the Reformed-Calvinist Church in the village of Voivodeni, built in the 15th century, and the Zichy Mansion in Vojvodina, constructed in the 18th century, to name two historical monuments.List of historical monuments of the Romanian Ministry of Culture, updated in 2015 (PDF, 12.7 MB, Romanian.Information on Lacul Sate at locuridepescuit.net , retrieved on July 6, 2019. Romanian language resource. There are also several lakes, like Lacul Sate, where tourists can fish.
See also List of Hungarian exonyms (Mureș County)
References
External links Voivodeni Castle Map of Mureș County