Svinița

Svinița Свињица / Svinjica
Commune
Location of Svinița within Mehedinţi County
Country	Romania
County	Mehedinți County
Government
• Mayor	Iovan Ivanovici (Jovan Ivanović) (since 2004)
Area
• Total	76.46 km2 (29.52 sq mi)
Elevation	135 m (443 ft)
Population  (2011)
• Total	928
• Density	12/km2 (31/sq mi)
Postal code	227440

Svinița (Romanian: Sviniţa, Serbian: Свињица or Svinjica, Hungarian: Szinice) is a commune in Mehedinţi County, Romania, located on the Danube (in the area of the Banat known as Clisura Dunării - Banatska Klisura in Serbian). It is composed of a single village, Svinița. In 2011, its population numbered 928 people and was mostly composed of Serbs. It is one of four localities in the county located in the Banat.

Name

The name Svinjica means "the pig place" or "little pig" in Serbian.

History

In the autumn of 1848, the locality was the site of a daring escape of Wallachian revolutionaries kept in Ottoman custody. Maria Rosetti and Constantin Daniel Rosenthal called on the local mayor to demand that Ottoman guards hand in their weapons on what was at the time Austrian soil, and all persons arrested were consequently free to go.

Demographics

Location of Sviniţa commune

Ethnic groups (2011 census):

• Serbs (91.6%)
• Romanians (7.1%)
• Romani (1%)

Languages

The commune is officially bilingual, with both Romanian and Serbian being used as working languages on public signage and in administration, education and justice.

Religion

As of 2002, most of the inhabitants of the commune (92.49%) were Old Believers by religion, while most of the rest are Orthodox Christians (6.53%).

See also

• Mehedinţi County
• Clisura Dunării
• Serbs in Romania