Nițchidorf (literally "Niczky's village"; ; , originally Kutas; ) is a commune in Timiș County, Romania. 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 Timiș County, in the hydrographic basin of the Timiș River, bordering Caraș-Severin County 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, 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 (1552–1718), the locality disappeared.
The current village was founded in 1784–1786 during the third wave of colonization of Banat, under Emperor Joseph II. At first, only 200 families were settled here. The origin of the settlers was from Lorraine, Alsace, Swabia, Luxembourg, Schwarzwald, Silesia, etc. Later came settlers from today's Hungary and Bohemia. 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 and accelerated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Today, Nițchidorf is mostly Romanian.
Demographics
Nițchidorf had a population of 1,483 inhabitants at the 2021 census, down 2.63% from the 2011 census. Most inhabitants are Romanians (86.71%), with a minority of Ukrainians (4.58%). For 7.34% of the population, ethnicity is unknown. By religion, most inhabitants are Orthodox (83%), but there are also minorities of Baptists (3.23%), Roman Catholics (2.36%), Adventists (1.82%) and Pentecostals (1.28%). For 7.61% of the population, religious affiliation is unknown. Census Ethnic composition Year Population Romanians Hungarians Germans Ukrainians 1880 2,861 1,015 19 1,803 – 1890 3,205 1,073 26 2,076 – 1900 3,394 1,141 60 2,167 – 1910 3,455 1,226 71 2,123 – 1920 3,278 1,088 35 2,136 – 1930 3,357 1,145 44 2,151 – 1941 3,157 1,035 29 2,078 – 1956 2,837 1,059 26 1,742 – 1966 2,495 1,004 20 1,466 – 1977 2,106 956 14 1,131 – 1992 1,555 1,411 21 59 55 2002 1,583 1,457 29 21 65 2011 1,523 1,352 26 21 49 2021 1,483 1,286 5 11 68
Politics and administration The commune of Nițchidorf is administered by a mayor and a local council composed of 11 councilors. The mayor, Dănuț-Ionel Drăghici, from the Social Democratic Party, has been in office since 2016. As from the 2024 local elections, the local council has the following composition by political parties: Party Seats Composition Social Democratic Party 9 Save Romania Union 2 Notable people Sebastian Kräuter (1922–2008), Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1950), writer, translator and journalist Herta Müller (b. 1953), writer and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature
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