Máramaros County

Map of Máramaros, 1891.

Máramaros county shared borders with the Austrian crownlands Galicia (now in Poland and Ukraine) and Bukovina (now in Romania and Ukraine) and the Hungarian counties Bereg, Ugocsa, Szatmár, Szolnok-Doboka and Beszterce-Naszód. It was situated on both sides of the river Tisza, and in the Carpathian mountains. Its area was 9,716 km² around 1910.

The first mention of the region in the written sources is from 1199 ("cum in Maramorisio tempore venationis venatum ivissemus"). In the 13th century, it was almost uninhabited or very scarcely inhabited. In 1343, the Voivodeship of Maramureș, granted to a small Romanian nobility, was established. The region was reorganized into the Máramaros County in 1402. The growth of its population started when the five crown cities (Máramarossziget, Hosszúmező, Huszt, Técső, Visk) were founded in the same century.[2] In 1920, after the Treaty of Trianon, the northern part of the county became part of newly formed Czechoslovakia (Subcarpathian Rus'). The southern part (including Sighetu Marmației) became part of Romania.

The northern part was returned to Hungary by the annexation of the remainder of Carpathian Ruthenia after Czechoslovakia ceased to exist in 1939, however the redeemed territories of the former county remained separate from the administrative branch office of Máramaros. After the Second Vienna Award, the rest of the county became part of Hungary as well and Máramaros County was recreated on this territory, with Máramarossziget as capital. Afterwards, the northern part of Máramaros county along with the administrative branch offices of Máramaros became part of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian SSR, Zakarpattia Oblast. Since 1991, when the Soviet Union split up, the Zakarpattya region is part of Ukraine.

The southern part of the county is now part of the Romanian county Maramureș.

In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of Máramaros county were: