Moldova Nouă (Neu-Moldova) and Moldova Veche (Moldova) on the Josephinian Land Survey, c. 1770
Moldova Nouă (Romanian pronunciation:[molˌdovaˈnowə]ⓘ; Hungarian: Újmoldova; German: Neumoldowa; Czech: Nová Moldava or Bošňák; Serbian: Нова Молдава or Бошњак, romanized: Nova Moldova or Bošnjak) is a town in southwestern Romania in Caraș-Severin County (the historical region of Banat), in an area known as Clisura Dunării. The town administers three villages: Măcești (Hungarian: Macsevics, Serbian: Мачевић), Moldova Veche (Ómoldova, Стара Молдава), and Moldovița (Kiskárolyfalva, Молдавица).
The town lies on the shores of the river Danube, which separates it from Serbia. It is located at the southern extremity of Caraș-Severin County, 107 km (66 mi) from the county capital, Reșița. It is crossed by national road DN57, which connects it to Oravița, 53 km (33 mi) to the north, and Orșova, 103 km (64 mi) to the east.
Moldova Veche
In Moldova Veche village, evidence of human habitation dating to the transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age has been found. Additionally, there exist traces of an unfortified Dacian settlement, similar to several others in the area.
A Roman fort located in the village supervised mining and navigation on the Danube, located in Roman Dacia. The harbour and border buildings partly lie on the ruins of the former fort with the rest below the Danube. The site was seen by the historian Leonard Bohm in the summer of 1879 when the river was low and a thorough examination of the ruins could be made. Moldova Noua was an important Roman mining centre for iron, copper, silver and gold.[3]
Vestiges from the Dark Ages and the Early Middle Ages have been found; during the 10th and 11th centuries, the area was controlled by Glad and later Ahtum.[4]Serbs have been living there since their replacement of the Gepids in the 5th century. [5]
In 1552, when the Banat fell under Ottoman rule, Moldova Veche became the capital of a sanjak within the Temeşvar Eyalet.[4] In 1566, at the end of Suleiman the Magnificent's reign, coins of gold (altâni) and silver (aspri) were minted there.[6] A document of 1588 records the place under the name Mudava; this is the earliest written mention. The Slavicizied Germanic-origin toponym is still used by locals. Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu and the majority of Romanian philologists and historians claim that the name comes from the term of Germanic origin mulde (i.e., "hollow", "quarry" or "drainage").[7] In 1718, the area came under the Habsburg monarchy's control.[4]
The village was absorbed into Moldova Nouă in 1956. It is the site of a Danube port.[8] There is a Baptist church; the community was established in 1927, its first church built in 1967 and the present structure in 2001.[9] Adherents are both Romanian and Serbian, with services conducted in Romanian.[10]
Demographics
In 1910, out of 3,437 inhabitants, 2,934 were ethnic Romanians, 295 Germans, 91 Hungarians, 41 Serbs and 73 Czechs; 3,004 where belonging to Orthodoxy, 389 where Roman Catholic and 25 where Reformed.
^ abc(in Romanian)Short history at the Moldova Nouă Town Hall site
^Georgiev, Pavel (2014). The Abodriti-Praedenecenti between the Tisza and the Danube in the 9th Century. Archaeolingua. pp. 107–120. ISBN978-963-9911-55-0.
^Maximean, Doina (2014). "A new theory on the etymology of the name of "Moldova"". Annals of the Academy of Romanian Scientists Series on History and Archaeology. 6: 2–7.
