Cenei (; ; ; ) is a commune in Timiș County, Romania. It is composed of two villages, Bobda and Cenei (commune seat). It also included Checea until 2004, when it was split off to form a separate commune.
History Cenei is one of the oldest settlements in Banat, first recorded in 1221 as a property of the archdiocese of Ittebe, today in Serbian Banat. By 1330 it belonged to the Sărad Fortress. Cenei was the site of a battle between the Turkish and Austrian troops on 20 August 1696.
As of 1720, the natives were mostly Romanians and Serbs. Through the efforts of the Vuketići family, Cenei was colonized with Croats between 1801 and 1820. German settlers arrived here only after 1848, much later than other nearby settlements. The Hungarian population did not settle here in waves of colonists, but gradually, over a long period of time. Today's village was formed by merging Ceneiu Sârbesc ("Serbian Cenei"; ) and Ceneiu Croat ("Croatian Cenei"; ) in 1902.
Demographics
Cenei had 2,760 inhabitants at the 2021 census, up 3.37% from the 2011 census. Most inhabitants are Romanians (72.21%), with larger minorities being represented by Serbs (12.5%) and Hungarians (6.12%). For 8.18% of the population, ethnicity is unknown. Most inhabitants are Orthodox by religion (67.13%), but there are also minorities of Serbian Orthodox (12.57%), Roman Catholics (8.18%) and Pentecostals (2.46%). For 8.55% of the population, religious affiliation is unknown. Census Ethnic composition Year Population Romanians Hungarians Germans Serbs Croats 1880 3,892 841 255 1,437 1,242 – 1890 4,193 833 213 1,714 1,187 149 1900 4,233 832 317 1,575 1,223 114 1910 3,917 830 304 1,205 1,446 96 1920 950 669 74 200 – – 1930 3,800 958 236 1,216 1,196 – 1941 3,609 1,087 193 1,051 – – 1956 3,554 – – – – – 1966 3,546 1,421 374 573 1,156 – 1977 3,487 1,570 384 468 987 43 1992 3,091 1,915 334 110 683 18 2002 2,868 1,920 299 65 531 17 2011 2,670 1,795 235 39 430 4 2021 2,760 1,993 169 21 345 3 Politics and administration The commune of Cenei is administered by a mayor and a local council composed of 13 councilors. The mayor, Sîrgean Tanasin, from the Social Democratic Party, has been in office since 2020. As from the 2024 local elections, the local council has the following composition by political parties: Party Seats Composition Social Democratic Party 8 National Liberal Party 2 Alliance for the Union of Romanians 2 Union of Serbs of Romania 1
Notable people Stefan Jäger (1877–1962), painter Gheorghe Jurma (b. 1945), literary critic, writer, eminescologist and editor (1947–2007), poet, prose writer, essayist and founder of Banat magazine
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