| Type: | commune |
| County: | Timiș |
| Population Total: | auto |
| Coordinates: | 45.8931°N 21.8806°W |
| Bara | |
| Leader Name: | Daniel Ursu[1] |
| Leader Term: | 2020 - 2024 |
| Leader Party: | PSD |
| Area Footnotes: | [2] |
| Area Total Km2: | 70.4 |
| Postal Code: | 307020–307024 |
Bara (Hungarian: Barafalva; German: Barr) is a commune in Timiș County, Romania. It is composed of five villages: Bara (commune seat), Dobrești, Lăpușnic, Rădmănești and Spata. Bara is located in the northeast of Timiș County, in a hilly area, 70km (40miles) from Timișoara and 30km (20miles) from Lugoj.
The first recorded mention of Bara dates from 1367.[3] The name Bara is of Slavic origin and, in medieval documents, is associated with the description "terra acquosa", meaning a marshy land. In 1440 Bara is taken from the prefect of Timiș by King Vladislav I and given to the Șoimoș Fortress.[4] By 1477 it was the property of the prefect of Pozsony, Miklós Bánffy. Under the Turks it was destroyed and re-established in 1690–1700. In 1879 Bara was bought by Pavel Teodorescu and Constantin Florea. The village was Romanian and remained mostly Romanian during the Austro-Hungarian rule.
All the villages in the commune were massively depopulated after World War II. Spata, for instance, became a ghost village in 1997 with the death of the last native. However, the settlement was repopulated by several families of Transylvanian shepherds.
Bara had a population of 388 inhabitants at the 2011 census, up 3% from the 2002 census. Most inhabitants are Romanians (97.94%). For 1.8% of the population, ethnicity is unknown.[5] By religion, most inhabitants are Orthodox (97.42%). For 1.8% of the population, religious affiliation is unknown.[6]
| Census[7] | Ethnic composition | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Population | ||||
| 1880 | 2,980 | 2,890 | 15 | 52 | |
| 1890 | 2,857 | 2,809 | 36 | 11 | |
| 1900 | 3,378 | 3,283 | 56 | 36 | |
| 1910 | 3,381 | 3,289 | 37 | 37 | |
| 1920 | 3,190 | 3,164 | 8 | 9 | |
| 1930 | 3,105 | 3,066 | 9 | 25 | |
| 1941 | 2,927 | 2,904 | 6 | 15 | |
| 1956 | 2,633 | 2,620 | 8 | – | |
| 1966 | 1,885 | 1,881 | 1 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 816 | 811 | – | – | |
| 1992 | 427 | 417 | 9 | – | |
| 2002[8] | 378 | 367 | 8 | – | |
| 2011 | 388 | 380 | – | – | |