Bihor County (, ) is a county ( județ) in western

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. With a total area of , Bihor is Romania's 6th largest county geographically and the main county in the

historical region History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

Crișana Crișana (, , ) is a geographical and historical region of Romania named after the Criș (Körös) River and its three tributaries: the Crișul Alb, Crișul Negru, and Crișul Repede. In Romania, the term is sometimes extended to include areas ...

. Its capital city is

Oradea Oradea (, , ; ; ) is a city in Romania, located in the Crișana region. It serves as the administrative county seat, seat of Bihor County and an economic, social, and cultural hub in northwestern Romania. The city lies between rolling hills on ...

(Nagyvárad).

Toponymy

The origin of the name Bihor is uncertain, except that it likely takes its name from an ancient fortress in the current commune of Biharia. It possibly came from ''vihor'', the Serbian and Ukrainian word for "whirlwind" (вихор), or Slavic ''biela hora'', meaning "white mountain". Another theory is that Biharea is of Daco-Thracian etymology (''bi'' meaning "two" and ''harati'' "take" or "lead"), possibly meaning two possessions of land in the Duchy of

Menumorut Menumorut or Menumorout (Modern ) was the ruler of the lands between the rivers Mureș, Someș and Tisza at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 900, according to the '' Gesta Hungarorum'', a Hungarian chronicle wr ...

(Ménmarót). Another theory is that the name comes from ''bour'', the Romanian term for

aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius''; or ; pl.: aurochs or aurochsen) is an extinct species of Bovini, bovine, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of t ...

(from the Latin word ''

bubalus ''Bubalus'' is a genus of Asiatic bovines that was proposed by Charles Hamilton Smith in 1827. ''Bubalus'' and '' Syncerus'' form the subtribe Bubalina, the true buffaloes. The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and classification ...

''). The animal once inhabited the lands of northwestern Romania. Under this controversial theory, the name changed from ''buar'' to ''buhar'' and to ''Bihar'' and ''Bihor''.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Bihor County was adopted in 1998, and is a quarterly shield featuring a castle (for the Castle of Bihar), five wheat stalks with a ribbon,a grape and a scroll with the text of ''

Deșteaptă-te, române! "" (; ) is the national anthem of Romania. It originated from a poem written during the Wallachian Revolution of 1848. The lyrics were composed by Andrei Mureșanu and published during the Wallachian Revolution of 1848, 1848 revolution, initiall ...

'', covered with a fess featuring three fish. It was subject to redesign in 2013 after it was discovered by a local teacher that the text on the scroll was erroneously written in Greek, rather than Cyrillic (the original alphabet used to write the poem's text) or the Latin alphabet. The county has no significant history with Greece.

Geography

This county has a total area of . In the eastern side of the county there are the

Apuseni Mountains The Apuseni Mountains (, "Western Mountains"; , "Transylvanian Mountains") are a mountain range in Transylvania, Romania, which belongs to the Western Romanian Carpathians. The highest peak is the Bihor Peak at . The Apuseni Mountains have ab ...

, with the highest peak being the Cucurbăta Mare (also known as the Bihor Peak), at . The heights decrease westwards, passing through the hills an ending in the Romanian Western Plain – the eastern side of the Pannonian plain. The county is mainly the Criș hydrographic basin with the rivers Crișul Repede (Sebes Körös), Crișul Negru (Fekete Körös), and Barcău the main rivers.

Neighbours

Sălaj County Sălaj County (; ) (also known as ''Land of Silvania'', ''silva, -ae'' means "forest") is a Counties of Romania, county (''județ'') of Romania, located in the north-west of the country, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical regions of ...

(Szilágy),

Cluj County Cluj County () is a county () of Romania, in Transylvania. Its seat is Cluj-Napoca. Name In Hungarian language, Hungarian it is known as ''Kolozs megye''. Under the Kingdom of Hungary, a county with an identical name (Kolozs County, ) existed s ...

(Kolozs), and

Alba County Alba County () is a county (județ) of Romania located in the historic region of Transylvania. Its capital is Alba Iulia, a city with a population of 63,536. Name "Alba", meaning "white" in Latin and Romanian, is derived from the name of the ...

(Fehér) in the East. * Hungary in the West – Hajdú-Bihar County and

Békés County Békés (, , ) is an administrative division (county or ''vármegye'') in south-eastern Hungary, on the border with Romania. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Csongrád-Csanád, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, and Hajdú-Bihar. The capital ...

Satu Mare County Satu Mare County (, , ) is a county (Counties of Romania, județ) of Romania, on the border with Hungary and Ukraine. The capital city is Satu Mare. Name In Hungarian language, Hungarian, it is known as ''Szatmár megye'', in German language, Ge ...

(Szatmár) in the North. *

Arad County Arad County () is an administrative division ( județ) of Romania roughly translated into county in the western part of the country on the border with Hungary, mostly in the region of Crișana and few villages in Banat. The administrative cente ...

in the South.

History

Prior to

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the territory of the county belonged to

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

and mostly was contained in the Bihar County of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of the war, and the declaration of the

Union of Transylvania with Romania The union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia. The Great Union Day (also called ''Unification Day''), celebrated on 1 December, is a Public holidays in Romani ...

, the

Romanian Army The Romanian Land Forces () is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. Since 2007, full professionalization and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Land Forces. The Romanian Land Forc ...

took control of the county in April 1919, during the Hungarian–Romanian War. The territory of Bihor County was officially transferred to the

Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania () was a constitutional monarchy that existed from with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King of Romania, King Carol I of Romania, Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian royal family), until 1947 wit ...

from Hungary as successor state to Austria-Hungary in 1920 under the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (; ; ; ), often referred to in Hungary as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference. It was signed on the one side by Hungary ...

. After the administrative unification law in 1925, the name of the county remained as it was, but the territory was reorganized. In 1938,

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Carol II Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930, until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. As the eldest son of Ferdinand I of Romania, King Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I, ...

promulgated a new

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

, and subsequently he had the administrative division of the Romanian territory changed. Ten ''ținuturi'' (approximate translation: "lands") were created (by merging the counties) to be ruled by ''rezidenți regali'' (approximate translation: "Royal Residents") – appointed directly by the king – instead of the prefects. Bihor County became part of Ținutul Crișuri. In August 1940, under the auspices of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, which imposed the Second Vienna Award,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

retook the territory of

Northern Transylvania Northern Transylvania (, ) was the region of the Kingdom of Romania that during World War II, as a consequence of the August 1940 territorial agreement known as the Second Vienna Award, became part of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920-1946), Kingdom ...

(which included part of the county) from Romania. In October 1944, Romanian forces with Soviet assistance recaptured the ceded territory and reintegrated it into Romania. Romanian jurisdiction over the entire county per the Treaty of Trianon was reaffirmed in the

Paris Peace Treaties, 1947 The Paris Peace Treaties () were signed on 10 February 1947 following the end of World War II in 1945. The Paris Peace Conference lasted from 29 July until 15 October 1946. The victorious wartime Allied powers (principally the United Kingdom, ...

. In September 1950, the county was disestablished by the communist government of Romania and was replaced by the Bihor Region, whose territory comprised an area similar to the old county. Bihor County was re-established in February 1968, when Romania restored the county administrative system.

Economy

Bihor is one of the wealthiest counties in Romania, with a GDP per capita well above the national average. Recently, the economy has been driven by a number of construction projects. Bihor has the lowest unemployment rate in Romania and among the lowest in Europe, with only 2.4% unemployment, compared to Romania's average of 5.1%. The predominant industries in the county are: * Textile industry. * Food and beverages industry. * Mechanical components industry. * Metallurgy. In the west side of the county there are mines for extracting coal and

bauxite Bauxite () is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH) ...

Crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring u ...

is also extracted.

Tourism

The main tourist attractions in the county are: * The city of

. * The

(Erdélyi-középhegység): ** The Stâna de Vale resort and the Iad River valley. ** The Caves around Padiș and on the Sighiștel River valley. ** The Bear's Cave. * Băile Felix Resort.

Demographics

According to the 2021 census, the county had a population of 551,297 and the

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . 51.1% of its population lives in urban areas, lower than the Romanian average.

Politics and administration

The Bihor County Council is led by Mircea Mălan, who has held office since March 2025, after Ilie Bolojan became acting

President of Romania The president of Romania () is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two ter ...

. Renewed at the 2024 local elections, the Bihor County Council consists of 34 counsellors, with the following party composition:

Administrative divisions

Bihor County has four municipalities, six towns, and 91 communes. Municipalities * Beiuș * Marghita *

– capital city; 183,105 (as of 2021) *

Salonta Salonta (; , colloquially , ; ) is a municipiu, city in Bihor County, in the geographical region of Crișana, north-western Romania, near the Hungarian border. Population According to the 2021 Romanian census, 2021 census, Salonta has a popu ...

Towns * Aleșd * Nucet * Săcueni * Ștei * Valea lui Mihai *

Vașcău Vașcău () is a town in Bihor County, Crișana, Romania. It administers five villages: Câmp (''Vaskohmező''), Câmp-Moți, Colești (''Kolafalva''), Vărzarii de Jos (''Alsófüves''), and Vărzarii de Sus (''Felsőfüves''). Demographics Acc ...

Communes

Historical county

Administration

The territory of the county was divided into twelve districts ('' plăși'')Portretul României Interbelice – Județul Bihor
/ref> #Plasa Aleșd (comprising 41 villages, headquartered at Aleșd) #Plasa Beiuș (comprising 62 villages, headquartered at Beiuș) #Plasa Beliu (comprising 30 villages, headquartered at Beliu) #Plasa Ceica (comprising 47 villages, headquartered at Ceica) #Plasa Centrală (comprising 40 villages, headquartered at

) #Plasa Marghita (comprising 43 villages, headquartered at Marghita) #Plasa Salonta (comprising 19 villages, headquartered at

) #Plasa Săcueni (comprising 11 villages, headquartered at Săcueni) #Plasa Sălard (comprising 28 villages, headquartered at Sălard) #Plasa Tileagd (comprising 28 villages, headquartered at Tileagd) #Plasa Tinca (comprising 26 villages, headquartered at Tinca) #Plasă Vașcău (comprising 44 villages, headquartered at

) Within Bihor County there were three urban localities: Oradea (also known as Oradea Mare, the county seat) and urban communes

and Beiuș.

Population

According to the 1930 census data, the county population was 510,318, ethnically divided among Romanians (61.6%), Hungarians (30.0%), Jews (4.3%), Czechs and Slovaks (2.2%), as well as other minorities. By language the county was divided among Romanian (61.4%), Hungarian (33.8%), Czech (2.0%), Yiddish (1.5%), as well as other minorities. From the religious point of view, the population consisted of Eastern Orthodox (49.8%), Reformed (21.0%), Greek Catholics (10.7%), Roman Catholics (10.4%), Jews (5.4%), Baptists (2.2%), as well as other minorities.Recensământul general al populației României din 29 decemvrie 1930, Vol. II, pag. 550-556

Urban population

The county's urban population consisted of 102,277 inhabitants, 54.8% Hungarians, 26.4% Romanians, 15.4% Jews, 1% Germans, as well as other minorities. As a mother tongue in the urban population, Hungarian (67.9%) predominated, followed by Romanian (24.9%), Yiddish (4.3%), German (1.2%), as well as other minorities. From the religious point of view, the urban population consisted of 31.5% Reformed, 20.6% Jewish, 19.3% Roman Catholic, 17.5% Eastern Orthodox, 9.1% Greek Catholic, 1.1% Lutheran, as well as other minorities. 1938 map of interwar county Bihor

References

{{coord, 47.0722, N, 21.9211, E, source:kolossus-euwiki, display=title Bihor County Counties of Romania Hungarian communities in Romania 1925 establishments in Romania 1938 disestablishments in Romania States and territories disestablished in 1938 States and territories established in 1925 1940 establishments in Romania 1950 disestablishments in Romania 1968 establishments in Romania States and territories established in 1940 States and territories disestablished in 1950 States and territories established in 1968