History

The villages of the Boiu Mare commune are mentioned for the first time almost five hundred years ago, and the folklore speaks of even more remote times.

The tradition tells that the Boiu Mare village formed initially in the place called today Satu Petrii (Peter's Village), north of the present location. It consisted of 14 houses and a very small church. It was a forest area, and the first houses were built in glades. After that, the inhabitants cut the woods making land for agriculture and settled in the present location of the village.

In those early times, the village was often plundered by Tartars. During these invasions the people escaped to a nearby cave.

At first, all the inhabitants were free peasants. During the rule of queen Maria Teresa of Austria, part of the lands of the village were donated to a nobleman and part of the peasants were forced to become serfs. The serfs had to work three days a week on the estate of the landowner. The landowner's residence was located in a place nowadays called "Court's Hill".

After the revolution in 1848 in Transylvania the serfdom was abolished, and the plots of land worked by the serfs became their property. The landowner leased the rest of the estate to a Jew. Later, when he wanted to sell all the estate, the inhabitants of the village borrowed money from a bank and bought it. The land was divided according to the quota with which every peasant had participated to the loan. The inhabitants of the village finished to pay the debt to the bank in 1916.

Between the two World Wars, important differences in fortune appeared between the peasants, yet there were no very big estates and no landless peasants.

After the World War II, the communist regime created in the village an association of peasants. In practice, they had to put almost all their land in common to make a large enterprise, but only a small part of the revenues remained in the village. After 1989, the peasants received their lands back.

The maximum population in the village and the commune was reached in the 1960s. Because of the economic conditions and the migration of young people to the cities, population started to recede. After 1989, this trend became clear and the population is now two times smaller than in 1989.

Even if some legends speak about the formation of the village in 1200s, Romanesti village was first mentioned in written documents in 1566, as newly emerged settlement, in its 11th year of existence. Its name probably comes from the name of a family that ruled it in the 1600s.

The village was part of the Chioar Fortress, and depended on it until 1876. In the domains of the fortress, because of the need of men for the army, many people of the village were awarded noble titles, so families of small noble landowners existed always in Romanesti.

The maximum population was reached in 1930s (211 people). Since 1989, the population decreased from 170 to only 91 people in 2003.

The first mention of Francenii Boiului village was also made in 1566. The name comes from the founder of the village, Frank Peter. In 1582 the village was included in the domain of Chioar Fortress.

The population in 2003 was of 76 people.