Brestovăț (, until 1892 Bresztovác; ; ; ) is a commune in Timiș County. It is composed of five villages: Brestovăț (commune seat), Coșarii, Hodoș, Lucareț and Teș. History Brestovăț first appears in written history as Breztolcz in 1440; at that time, it belonged to the Șoimoș Fortress. It was destroyed during the Turkish occupation and resettled in 1718–1722. Turks called it Aga, an unofficial name that persisted for a while and was taken over by Hungarians and later by the Romanian administration.
Between 1735 and 1737, 113 families of Montenegrin Serbs, mostly Orthodox, settled here. In 1797, Brestovăț became the property of the Lukács brothers, who colonized a large number of Hungarian and Slovak settlers here. Around 1828, now a property of Iosif Gaal, it was again colonized by Hungarians from Nógrád, Nyitra and Trencsén. The colonizations do not stop here, because in 1840–1845, German settlers from Bohemia arrived in Brestovăț.
Demographics
Brestovăț had a population of 675 inhabitants at the 2021 census, up 0.15% from the 2011 census. Most inhabitants are Romanians (85.77%), with a minority of Slovaks (2.96%). For 10.37% of the population, ethnicity is unknown. By religion, most inhabitants are Orthodox (77.92%), but there are also minorities of Roman Catholics (8.29%), Baptists (1.48%) and Greek Catholics (1.18%). For 10.37% of the population, religious affiliation is unknown. Census Ethnic composition Year Population Romanians Hungarians Germans Roma Serbs Slovaks 1880 3,725 2,601 224 208 – 280 407 1890 3,934 2,684 259 235 – 298 442 1900 4,417 3,000 447 256 – 226 444 1910 4,471 2,933 517 151 – 367 425 1920 3,895 2,583 285 117 – – – 1930 3,853 2,764 216 188 105 107 455 1941 3,709 2,742 192 262 – – – 1956 3,210 2,481 144 73 – 112 397 1966 2,328 1,728 58 59 16 83 378 1977 1,364 873 42 44 9 52 338 1992 851 596 10 27 – 33 185 2002 818 589 19 16 – 43 151 2011 674 514 10 3 8 11 102 2021 675 579 – – – – 20 Politics and administration The commune of Brestovăț is administered by a mayor and a local council composed of 9 councilors. The mayor, Eugen Dobra, from the National Liberal Party, has been in office since 2004. As from the 2024 local elections, the local council has the following composition by political parties: Party Seats Composition National Liberal Party 6 Social Liberal Humanist Party 2 Social Democratic Party 1
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