Official Name: | Județul Caraș |
Settlement Type: | County (Județ) |
Subdivision Type2: | Historic region |
Subdivision Type3: | Capital city (Reședință de județ) |
Established Title: | Established |
Established Date: | 1925 |
Established Title2: | Ceased to exist |
Established Date2: | Administrative reform of 1950 |
Area Total Km2: | 4693 |
Population As Of: | 1930 |
Population Total: | 200929 |
Population Density Km2: | auto |
Utc Offset: | +2 |
Utc Offset Dst: | +3 |
Caraș County is one of the historic counties of Romania in the historic region of the Banat. The county seat was Oravița. The county was founded in 1926, following the division of the former Caraș-Severin County.
In 1938, the county was disestablished and incorporated into the newly formed Ținutul Timiș, but it was re-established in 1940 after the fall of Carol II's regimeonly to be abolished 10 years later by the Communist regime on September 6, 1950.
Caraș County covered 4,693 km2 and was located in the Banat region in the southwestern part of Greater Romania. Currently, the territory that comprised Caraș County is mostly now included in the reconstituted Caraș-Severin County. In the interwar period, the county neighbored Timiș-Torontal County to the north and northwest, Severin County to the east and northeast, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to the west, south, and southwest.
Administratively, Caraș County was originally divided into five districts (plăși):[1]
Subsequently, a sixth district was established:
The county contained two urban communes (cities): Oravița (the county's headquarters) and Reșița (the largest city of the county).
According to the 1930 census data, the county's population was 200,929, ethnically divided as follows: 69.5% Romanians, 12.8% Germans, 4.9% Serbs and Croats, 3.6% Czechs and Slovaks, 2.8% Romanies, 2.5% Hungarians, as well as other minorities.[2] The county's population was divided religiously as follows: 70.3% Eastern Orthodox, 21.5% Roman Catholic, 5.1% Greek Catholic, 1.5% Baptist, as well as other minorities.[3]
In the year 1930, the county's urban population was 29,453, ethnically divided as follows: 43.4% Germans, 42.2% Romanians, 8.8% Hungarians, 1.6% Czechs and Slovaks, 1.4% Jews, as well as other minorities. From the religious point of view, the urban population consisted of 50.5% Roman Catholic, 39.7% Eastern Orthodox, 3.7% Greek Catholic, 2.1% Reformed, 1.7% Jewish, 1.6% Lutheran, as well as other minorities.