​The small town in Banat has many records and awards and a climate worthy of a much more southern location. Oravice has extremely hot nights and winds that can exceed 140 km/h. It is also home to the oldest theater in Romania, as well as the oldest railway. 300 years ago, there was a brewery here, as well as a school for training miners. What is the history of the weather and more in this special place?

A place with a mild climate and a formidable history

La Oravica was Romania’s warmest winter month for complete weather records, with an average temperature of almost 10 C in February 2024, more in line with cities in southern Italy, Spain or Greece.

Oravica is a very special city because, although it is small, with 12,000 inhabitants, it has many national monuments, an unexpectedly interesting history and a completely atypical climate for Romania.

• February 2024 was the warmest winter month in Romania since complete weather data is available

The climate is mild, because the territory is protected from cold winds, it is exposed to the sun, and the influence of the Mediterranean climate is also felt. The city is located between the hills of Oravice and the Anina Mountains.

Many of the first historical events, such as the first railway in the territory of modern Romania or the first theater, belong to the Austrians, Oravica was part of the Habsburg Empire for a long time. As for the weather, Oravice is the only place in the country where the temperature in June was 42 °C, and just a year ago it had the record for the highest temperature in January.

Oravița, Adriana Sulugiuc Photo Theater, Dreamstime.com

Oravica is located near the border with Serbia, and Resica is 90 km away. The maximum height in the city does not exceed 350 m, but there is also a nearby hill called Tâlva Mare, whose height approaches 900 m.

Some extreme weather conditions for Oravice

– For 22 years, the city held the absolute January temperature record in Romania, +22.2 C, recorded in the first days of 2001. The record was broken in January 2023 at the Tour Magurele.

– The city holds the record for the absolute maximum in June: +42 C in 1938.

– This is one of the few weather stations where, even in the harsh winters of the 80s and 60s, temperatures below -25 C were NOT measured (the minimum was -22.7 C in January 1963).

– Oravitsa is special in that tropical nights (minimum over 20 C) are registered here in April, as well as in October, on Mondays, when in the rest of the country the minimum rarely exceeds 10-15 C.

– This is one of the warmest nights in the country for the whole year, and the highest night minimum was +28.8 C on August 22, 2000.

Weather in Oravica in February 2024 – Extremely warm month

In the city of Karash-Severin, the average temperature last month was +9.5 C, almost 1.5 C higher than in February 2016, which set new records at the time. The average temperature for the past month was 6.3 C higher than the 30-year average for February.

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Since 2021, the average temperature has been higher than the April average, which speaks to how unusual last month was.

There were only three frosty nights and 13 days with a maximum above +15 C. There was also one day with a maximum above 20 C.

A prosperous place 300 years ago

Oravica became a town at the end of the 18th century, and at the end of the 17th century, many families from Oltenia who fled the Ottomans found refuge here. The town is mentioned in documents after 1690 and became important after the Austrians developed mining here and after 1715 workers were brought from Austrian and German territories, and a school was opened to train future miners. It was the first such mining school in the region.

As early as 1718, there was a blast furnace here for smelting iron ore. It should also be said that in this area, in Banatul-Montan, very high-quality coal was mined, which can be compared with English coal.

Oravica continued to develop after 1740, new smelters were opened, and workers and merchants from all over the Balkans and Central Europe arrived in the city. In 1796, a pharmacy was also opened, which is now a museum.

Around the middle of the 18th century, Oravica became the epicenter of the Banatul Montan region, from where Vienna extracted wood, gold and coal, which are rare in the entire empire. On the maps of that time, the settlement was called Oravits, the standard of living was high, but the work also took place in extremely difficult conditions.

Since German settlers were brought to this area, who also received a number of privileges, small breweries were also opened after 1718, one of which was built not far from Oravica, in Čiklova Montana, around 1728. Beer was made from grain brought from the villages around Oravits.

Today it is the first theater in Romania

More than 230 years ago, there was not only industry but also culture in Oravice, the first important society was founded in 1790. In 1802, they began to collect funds for what will go down in history as the first building in Romania built to be a theater. We are talking about the current territory of Romania, because 207 years ago, when the building was erected, Oravica was part of the Habsburg Empire.

Photo by Svlase, Dreamstime.com

The construction was based on the former Burgteather in Vienna, and the building in Orawitz would not have existed without the funds collected by two important Masonic lodges of the time: Cosmos and Glueck Auf, the Masons were already influential people. The grand opening of the theater took place in October 1817, when Emperor Franz I (and Empress Augusta Carolina) arrived from Vienna.

The baroque theater was ready less than two years after work began, and the architect-designer was the Aromanian Ion Niuni (Niuni), assisted by a Viennese architect.

The theater is named Mihai Eminescu in honor of the fact that Mihail Pascali’s theater troupe gave two performances in Oravica in September 1868. Eminescu, who was then 18 years old, was the conductor of the troupe.

After the 1989 revolution, the old theater was in a state of disrepair, but it was renovated more than 25 years ago.

First the railway

Oravica is still the starting point for the most beautiful mountain railway in Romania, Oravica – Anina, put into operation in 1863. There is only one train a day and there has been talk of closing the line in the past. 30 km is covered in two hours, but it is worth trying to experience the unique train in the country and the fantastic scenery.

Photo by Adrian Sulugyuk, Dreamstime.com

In Oravice there was also the first railway in the territory of modern Romania, also built by the Austrians 170 years ago.

Between 1840 and 1850, railways spread across Central Europe, and the importance of rapid transport of raw materials for industry necessitated eastward expansion thanks to investment by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The first railway in our country was approved in 1846 by the government in Vienna and was built between 1847 and 1854 at a distance of 62 km between Oravice and Baziash (two cities located in the Banat, which at that time belonged to the Austrians). ).

The line was built for economic reasons, because it was very difficult to transport coal from the mountains of Anina and Semenik to the Danube. In 1854, trains carrying coal began to run along this line, and from 1856 the route was open to passengers, with an average speed of 20 km/h. The former line had six stations, and it must be said that it made a ring, also stopping in the cities that are now in Serbia: Bila Tserkva (now Bela Crkva) and Jasenova (Jasenovac).

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Oravice and the weather station, which has been operating for 70 years

Meteorological station Oravița is located on a wide plateau with a very good exposure, which exceeds the height of the city itself, being located at 309 m, the description of the regional meteorological center of Banat Crisan shows.

The average long-term air temperature in the area is 11.3°С, but the fluctuations between cold and warm years are very large. For example, the average temperature in 1997 was 10.4 C, and in 2023 – 13.3 C.

• How much the number of very hot summer nights has increased and what an urban island of heat

The first meteorological observations in the Oravice area were carried out in 1954. The climate of Oravice is influenced by the activity of air masses coming from the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas, and this makes the city milder winters than in other regions of the country and hot summers, but not hot summers.

Oravice also has a very intense wind called košava, the speed of which can reach over 140 km/h. There were several episodes at the weather station, especially in the 90s, when speeds over 143 km/h were measured. It is very likely that the strongest wind gusts were 200 km/h in the Oravice area.

Kosava is a warm and dry wind that causes the snow to melt in a few days and keeps the minimum temperature much higher than in other regions on consecutive nights. Most often it happens in winter, but it can blow from October to April and the strengthening of this wind can last for several days. The name of this wind comes from the Serbian (Kosava).

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Photo source: Dreamstime.com