Baranya

Baranya may refer to:

Baranya County (former)

Baranya (Hungarian: Baranya, Croatian: Baranja, Serbian: Baranja or Барања, German: Branau) was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now in southern Hungary (the present county Baranya) and northeastern Croatia (part of the Osijek-Baranja county). The capital of the county was Pécs.

Geography

Baranya county was located in Baranya region. It shared borders with the Hungarian counties Somogy, Tolna, Bács-Bodrog and Verőce (the latter county was part of Croatia-Slavonia). The county stretched along the rivers Drave (north bank) and Danube (west bank), up to their confluence. Its area was 5,176 km² around 1910.

Historical background

Baranya county arose as one of the first comitatus of the Kingdom of Hungary, in the 11th century. Stephen I of Hungary founded an episcopal seat here. In the 15th century, Janus Pannonius was the Bishop of Pécs. In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire conquered Baranya, and included it into the sanjak of Mohács, an Ottoman administrative unit, with the seat in the city of Mohács.

Baranya (region)

Baranya or Baranja (Hungarian: Baranya, pronounced [ˈbɒrɒɲɒ]; Croatian: Baranja, pronounced [bǎraɲa]; German: Branau) is a geographical region between the Danube and the Drava rivers. Its territory is divided between Hungary and Croatia. In Hungary, the region is included into Baranya county, while in Croatia, it is included into Osijek-Baranja county.

Name

The name of the region come from the Slavic word 'bara', which means 'marsh', 'bog', thus the name of Baranya means 'marshland'. Even today large parts of the region are swamps, such as the natural reservation Kopački Rit in its southeast. Another theory states that the name of the region come from the Slavic and Hungarian word 'bárány', which means 'lamb'.

History

During the history, the region of Baranya was part of the Roman Empire, the Hunnic Empire, the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, the Kingdom of the Lombards, the Avar Kingdom, the Frankish Empire, the Balaton Principality, the Bulgarian Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire and the Austria-Hungary. Since 1918/1921, the region was divided between Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as Yugoslavia).