Alsólugas

Geographical description

It is located in the middle of the county, on the right side of the Sebes Körös river, Nagyvárad is westwards and it is 32 km far from Alsólugas, Élesd is eastwards and it is 5 km far. Alsólugas is on the E 60 route, too. Alsólugas, Lugas existed even in the Kingdom of Hungary. The name Lugas appeared in scripts between the years 1291- 1294, then in 1406 was used the name hungaricalis Lugasd, later in 1458 Magyarlugas was its name, then in 1808 Lugos (Alsó-) in 1851 Alsó-Lugos, and in 1913 Alsólugos. In the beginning of the XIX th century the village belonged to count Batthyány`s estate. The Zichy  family became heirs 1840- 1918, the beautiful country mansion of the village was built by count Domokos Zichy`s ideas.

As a consequence of the Huta- brook flooding the settlement was devastated, this catastrophe ruined houses and made human sacrifices. In the beginning of the XX. th century count Jenő Zichy was the heir of the village. The population in 1910, ethnic groups: 906 Romanians, 76 Hungarians, 1 German, 45 Romani people and 13 Slovaks, as a total of 1041 inhabitants.

Ethnic groups by the national census 2002:

• Romanians: 1.613 (48,67%)
• Romani people: 804 (24,26%)
• Hungarians: 640 (19,31%)
• Slovaks: 251 (7,57%)
• German: 1 (0,03%)
• Lipovan: 1 (0,03%)
• Italian: 1 (0,03%)
• Other ethnicity: 1 (0,03%)
• Not mentioned ethnicity: 2 (0,06%)

The population by religion: 53,83% Orthodox (1784 inhabitans), 17,77% Reformed (589 inhabitants), 12,43% Pentecostalists (412 inhabitants), 9,08% Roman Catholics (301 inhabitants), 6,06%  Baptists (201 inhabitants).

Ethnic groups by the national census 2011:

• Romanians: 1.982 (55,4%)
• Romani people: 354 (9,9%)
• Hungarians: 908 (25,4%)
• Slovaks: 223 (6,2%)
• Other ethnicity: 2 (0,05%)
• Didn`t answer: 111 (3,1%)

Örvénd

The first script of Örvénd is from 1282, with the name Uluend or Vluend it belonged to the Csanád clan estate. Presumably the location of the settlement was different from the recent one and its houses were among the hills. Unfortunately there isn`t any certain information about the year since when the settlement belonged to the Zichy family estate, but there is a script from 1256 about  the Csanád clan, mentioning that Mezőtelegd was their estate since immemorially (ab antiqua). Probably Telegd and its district belonged to the Csanád`s clan estate for a longer period, but under the Mongol Invasion of Europe , after 1241 the Geregye clan occupied the settlements and handed back only later in 1275.

Beside the prosperous trades in the Sebes Körös valley, the region was attacked by the Mongol Invasion of Europe for several times, for instance in 1241 the Mongolian tribes sacked Nagyvárad, and left in ruin the villages and towns by the Sebes Körös valley. It is not known exactly to what extent the village Örvánéd was attacked, but presuming its earlier location was among the hills and the mountains, the people could hide in the giant forests from the Mongols.  Bihor county was not troubled by outlanders till the XVI.- XVII. centuries , then the Turkish tribes conquered some territories.

The greatest investment in Örvénd was in the `80s with the hydropower system between Élesd and Fugyivásárhely. The negative effects of this system are unclear up to the present date. Örvénd`s hydrologic system has changed, the most productive lands are under the catchment area, the beautiful banks of the Sebes- Körös river has disappeared. The water between the concrete walls made anything from the past disappear. Of course the building of the catchment basin has got more positive aspects, for instance beside producing more electric current, the concrete walls protect the houses against flooding. The main purpose of the great investment was to control the river flow, protect more villages against flooding and produce natural energy. The system has got two catchment basins, one with four hydroelectrics and another controling basin. Both of the catchment basins were finished in 1989, the dam of Lugas is 36.5 m high with the capacity to store 63, 5 million cubic meter of water, its power is 9 MW. The catchment basin of Telegd is with the capacity to store 52,9 million cubic water and its power is 18 MW.