Tășnad, Satu Mare County, Nord-Vest, Romania

🇷🇴 Tășnad is a town in Satu Mare County, Crișana, Romania. It administers five villages: Blaja, Cig, Rațiu, Sărăuad and Valea Morii. At about 2 km (1.2 mi) from the centre lies Tășnad geothermal Spa, known in Romania and abroad for its thermal waters.

Demographics At the 2021 census, Tășnad had a population of 8,058. At the 2011 census, there were 8,411 people living within the city; of those, 51.1% were ethnic Romanians, while 36.2% are ethnic Hungarians, 11.4% ethnic Romani, and 1,1% others.

As of 2022, the city contains the Reformed Church, a Baptist Church, the Orthodox cathedral, a Roman Catholic church, and a Greek Catholic church.

Dr. Abraham Fuchs wrote a comprehensive historical book about Tășnad as it was up to World War II. The book is in Hebrew and describes the vibrant Jewish life in this small town up until its destruction in 1944.

History At the archaeological site of Tășnad-Sere in the Spa-area, finds from the Neolithic Körös, Pișcolt and Baden cultures have been made as well as remains from the late Iron Age and the migration period (Chernyakhov culture). Since 2012, Ulrike Sommer from the Institute of archaeology London conducts excavations of the Körös site together with the Satu Mare Museum. Until 1876, Tășnad was part of Közép-Szolnok County when it was incorporated in the newly formed Szilágy County of the Kingdom of Hungary.

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I, and the declaration of the Union of Transylvania with Romania, the Romanian Army took control of Tășnad in April 1919, during the Hungarian–Romanian War. The city officially became part of the territory ceded to the Kingdom of Romania in June 1920 under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon. In August 1940, under the auspices of Nazi Germany, which imposed the Second Vienna Award, Hungary retook the territory of Northern Transylvania (which included Tășnad) from Romania. Towards the end of World War II, however, the city was taken back from Hungarian and German troops by Romanian and Soviet forces in October 1944.