Vișeu de Sus
Vișeu de Sus (Romanian pronunciation: [viˌʃe.u de ˈsus]; German: Oberwischau; Hungarian: Felsővisó; Ukrainian: Ви́шово-Ви́жнє; Yiddish: אויבערווישא, romanized: Ober Vishoi or Ober Wisho or Ojberwischo) is a town in Maramureș County, Maramureș, Romania, located at the confluence of the rivers Vișeu and Vaser.The town is situated in a hilly area and therefore most of the people live in the valleys with their settlements as follows: The town's current local council has the following multi-party political composition, based on the results of the votes cast at the 2020 Romanian local elections:[3] Vișeu de Sus is the terminus of a forestry railway system that extends deep into the Vaser River valley approaching the Ukrainian border.The nearest national railway (CFR standard gauge) passenger station is at Vișeu de Jos, 4 km away, on the line 409 from Salva to Sighetu Marmației.The year 1453 is the one in which John Hunyadi, the Voivode of Transylvania and the governor of Hungary, gives Vișeu de Sus to the three knezes Ștefan, Petru Mândru, and Nan (Nașcu) and their brothers.The evolution of the town itself starts after the year 1770, when there is established forestry centers with workers in Vişeu and Borșa – "țipțeri" colonists – from Spiš, brought to Vișeu by order of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.[citation needed] Jews from Galicia also settled in Vișeu de Sus in the 18th century and worked primarily in the lumber industry.The stories of this ethnic group and the memories of the elders, as well as the documents, bear witness to a hard, primitive life of these people in the past.The wood was cut from above with axes, on gutters with water downstream, gathered in dams at Măcârlău and Făina, and from here, formed into rafts, going on the Vaser and further to Tisza.The "Butinars" (forestry workers) slept in cottages called "finnish", they had the fire in the middle, and the beds were arranged radially so that they could warm up more easily and dry their clothes in the winter.[4] In 2011, a museum dedicated to the Jews of Vișeu de Sus opened at the site of the former home of Alexander Elefant, a former Jewish resident and timber factory owner.The exhibition presents the history of the Jewish community in Vișeu de Sus up until World War II when they were forcibly deported and sent to Auschwitz.The town lies at the confluence of the rivers Vișeu and Vaser, at an altitude of 427 m (1,401 ft) above sea level, having the characteristics of a mountain city.Vaser is the most attractive tourist route in the Maramureș Mountains, a defile, separating on the left a few crystalline shales: Prislopașul (1,201 m), Grebeni (1594 m), Novicioru (1,452 m).Its river basin is developed, mostly, in the mountain zone (67%), which ensures a high density of the hydrographic network and a specific drainage of the highest in the country.Mineral waters, due to their complex chemical composition, are natural healing factors with a special therapeutic importance.Bird species include: black grouse, western capercaillies, Eurasian three-toed woodpeckers, red crossbills, coal tits, ring ouzels, etc.