Аранка каналы маңының табиғаты мен тарихы

The town lies in the low plain of the Aranca Canal. It is generally flat, only slightly fragmented, as a result of water erosion during the time when the Mureș River was able to overflow and uneven deposition of alluvial material. The territory is located in the Mureș Plain, which is a typical form of fluvio lacustrine subsidence, with shallow valleys with abandoned riverbeds resulting from the regularization of watercourses and drainage, with an altitude between The northern part is located in the former meadow of Mureș, and the southern part in the former meadow of the old Aranca stream, today regularized and canalized. On the territory of the town there are some elevations with southwest–northeast direction, which continue towards Saravale commune. The most important of these hunci (elevations) is located on the former border line between the town and the former commune of Sânnicolau German (now incorporated into the town), south of the Dudeștii Vechi–Tomnatic road, and is called Hunca Farchii. The most important natural resource is geothermal water, which is used in greenhouses, in hemp smelters and in heating homes.

The main collector of the Aranca Plain is the Aranca, which flows into the Tisa. The Aranca Canal is installed on the former riverbeds of the Mureș and has a divagation area before its damming. It springs from the Mureș meadow, from Felnac (where the Mureș dam begins) and flows into the Tisa. The Aranca Canal crosses Sânnicolau Mare and in the past aimed to drain water from flooded lands, being widened and deepened in 1959 and 1960. On the territory of the town it has a length of and , a width ranging from and a depth of between The maximum flow is recorded in spring, and the minimum flow in summer.

The fauna is of Central European type with sub Mediterranean elements, with penetrations and a mixture of species coming from the north, south and west of the country. The fauna of the steppe and forest steppe is characterized by the presence of rodents such as ground squirrel, hamster, hare, and among the birds: turtle dove, nightingale, quail, grey partridge, etc. In the Aranca meadow and in the swamps around the town live numerous species of mallards, geese, herons, glossy ibises, fire bellied toads and otters. The forest fauna is represented by roe deer, red fox, hare and squirrel, and among the birds are the same present in the steppe and forest steppe. The fish fauna present in the Aranca Canal and in Mureș includes wels, carp, pike, Prussian carp, weatherfish and bleak. It got its name from the Mureș and from the Dacian tribe Morasian, which had its residence here before the arrival of the Romans. Morisena would have covered the entire territory from Cenad to Sânnicolau Mare, being located between the Mureș and Aranca rivers – which at that time was navigable. Even if Morisena did not lie on the hearth of the town, there are enough scientific and military reasons to believe that in this place there was a castrum of Legio XIII Gemina erected as an outpost for the defense of Morisena. Between 106 and 274 AD Morisena becomes a town under the Roman Empire. In 274 AD, emperor Aurelian withdrew his legions south of the Danube, leaving Trajan's Dacia in the hands of the Goths. Between 380 and 396 the Huns, invading Dacia under Attila, drove the Goths south of the Danube, occupying Dacia, which they named Hunia, Morisena becoming the capital of the Hun Empire, Attila's residence. Morisena was located on a very large area, including Cenad and Sânnicolau Mare, which appear together on the map of Europe in the 5th century. The natives were spared and even respected by the Huns, living with them in harmony. Attila in his battles in the Balkan Peninsula brings Roman slaves and settles them in Dacia, strengthening the Roman element. Byzantine rhetorician Priscus, sent by emperor Theodosius II, described Attila as having royal authority, dressed simply and very religiously, and learning beautiful things from the Dacians, Hun, Latin and Roman being spoken at his court. From those times are preserved the earth elevations on the border of the town called hunci, which were used as fortifications, observation points and tombs. The legends of the time say that Attila was buried on the territory of the town, in one night, in three coffins of gold, silver and iron, together with his weapons and jewelry, on the bed of the Aranca, which was then diverted. Following the war between the Hungarians and Duke Glad, the latter demands peace and keeps his principality as a vassal to the Hungarian prince Árpád. The hagiography Long Life of Saint Gerard, originally written in 1046, mentions a certain ruler called Ahtum who was governing the area of Banat at the time when King Stephen I of Hungary attacked it in 1002 from a stronghold called Urbis Morisena (literally City on the Mureș River). In the early eleventh century King Stephen I subdued lands in Transylvania, including the domain of Ahtum, who according to some estimates only held out for a few months, yet according to others as late as 1025 or even 1030, when he was defeated through the betrayal of Chanadinus, a relative of Ahtum. The fortress of Morisena was made by King Stephen I the supreme seat of the newly acquired lands, yet it was quickly rivaled by the newly established town of Cenad. Ahtum is called Ajtony in the Hungarian chronicle Gesta Hungarorum and his ethnicity is disputed (he may have been Hungarian, Kabar, Pecheneg or Romanian). Between this conquest and 1241 Morisena was under Hungarian rule. That year it was devastated by the Tatars, and after their departure, King Béla IV rebuilt the fortress on the hearth of San Nicolau. The name is said to have come from the monastery of St. Nicholas near the town, which also existed during the time of dukes Glad and Ahtum. The treasure dates from the 6th to the 10th century. No consensus has yet been reached on the origin of the treasure. The pieces of the treasure were manufactured at different times and by different masters. According to one theory, the treasure was made in the 8th century by the Avars. Another theory claimed that Bulgars made the utensil in the 9th century, and according to another study the Magyars of the Original Settlement made the treasure in the 10th century. The pieces are on display in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the National Historical Museum in Sofia.

Sânnicolau Mare first appears in written history in 1247, when it is mentioned as Zent Miklous. It becomes an independent town and fortress on 17 December 1256, detaching itself from Cenad. Sometime between 1315 and 1331, King Charles Robert passed with his troops in the battles with Basarab I through this settlement. In 1394, Sultan Bayezid I devastated the land of Timiș, but was expelled. Some of the knightly armies of Burgundy, England and the German states passed through the town in 1396, heading for Nikopol, with peasant groups forming here in helping them in the battles against the Turks. The capital of Cenad came into the possession of the Hunyadi family on 8 August 1455, of which Sânnicolau Mare was part, and later in 1458 it came under the rule of Matthias Corvinus. In 1481, Pál Kinizsi brought 50,000 Serbs from the Turkish occupied territories to Banat, and some settled in the town. Banat with Timișoara and its localities, especially those along the Mureș, become the scene of battles between Hungarians and Turks. For the Kingdom of Hungary Banat had a defensive role, and for the Ottoman Empire it was the turning point of the system of many offensives. The capital of Banat falls into the hands of the Turks on 30 June 1552 under Ahmed Ali Pasha, and in the same summer he conquers Sânnicolau Mare and Cenad, the first belonging to the Eyalet of Temeşvar, and the second to the Sanjak of Çanad. In 1594, some of the inhabitants, led by Vladeca Tudor and together with the army of the Ban of Karánsebes, put up resistance in the fortress of Nagybecskerek, but were defeated. In 1606, Banat passed permanently under Turkish occupation, during which time there was a Turkish barracks with a janissary school in the town aimed at defending the Mureș and Tisa rivers to the north and west.

The urban development of Sânnicolau Mare is closely linked to the Nákó család of counts. The family history of the Nákós goes back to the Middle Ages. According to the documents, the family comes from the Greek market town of Dogriani in Macedonia. The first Nákós in Banat were brothers Christoph and Cyril Nákó. They bought most of the Sânnicolau Mare estate at an auction of animals and goods in 1781. On 11 June 1787, Sânnicolau Mare received approval for the organization of an annual fair and, starting with 6 July 1837, for the organization of a weekly fair. Its value as a locality also materialized through the postal road that connected the diligences and stagecoaches between Timișoara–Budapest–Vienna (Sânnicolau Mare being a station for changing horses). In fact, in German documents from 1837, the name oppidum also appears, which means that the locality itself was the basis of a town. Due to a great fire in Nagybecskerek, the county seat, the headquarters of the prefecture of Torontál County was moved to Sânnicolau Mare between 1807 and 1820. The revolutionary year 1848 was also felt in Sânnicolau Mare, many locals participating in the revolutionary battles, even constituting an area called Sânnicolau Mare Sârbesc ("Serbian Great St. Nicholas"; ) being included in the province of Serbian Voivodeship. During 1850–1853, judicial activities began, the Nákó Castle was built in neoclassical style, as well as the Vălcani–Periam railway. Twenty years later, after the Mureș flood, the Aranca Canal is cleared and arranged. In 1883 the first hospital was established by a philanthropic gesture of Count Nákó. Starting with the years 1867 of the Austro Hungarian dualism, with all the difficulties encountered, the locality continued its economic, social and cultural development. Thus, between 1867 and 1918, there were dozens of workshops, manufactories, banks, bakeries, slaughterhouses, doctor's offices and veterinary clinics, tanneries, cartwright's workshops, woodworks, cattle shopkeepers, brickworks, vine growers, farms, as well as a brewery, a brick factory and a tile factory. There were also bookstores, weaving mills, pharmacies and a number of craftsmen such as mechanics, tailors, chimney sweepers, rope makers, watchmakers and locksmiths. Between 1951 and 1968, it was a raion seat, and since 1968 it has been a town of Timiș County, and in this period the town expanded territorially through the development of industrial areas in the north and south.

According to the 2011 census, most inhabitants are Orthodox (63.13%), but there are also minorities of Roman Catholics (17.49%), Pentecostals (4.41%), Serbian Orthodox (2.53%), and Greek Catholics (2.01%). For 7.55% of the population, religious affiliation is unknown. The religious composition is closely linked to the ethnic composition. Thus, in Sânnicolau Mare, almost all Romanians and Serbs have been Orthodox, almost all Germans, Hungarians, and Bulgarians have been Catholic.

Sânnicolau Mare is the birthplace of ro, the first woman journalist in Banat and Transylvania. Between 1873 and 1890, under the editorship of Damian Petrovici, the specialized magazine Apicultorul appears, being the first of its kind in the country. The first local newspaper, Nagyszentmiklósi közlöny, issued in the Hungarian language by Schreyer Viktor Győző, appears in 1879. The newspaper resists until 1914, when it changes its title into Felső Torontál/Torontalul de Sus and appears also in the Romanian language. The first German newspaper, Südungarische Volksblatt, appears in 1882 and is published by the first printing house in the town, belonging to Natahail Wienwier. Through professor Teodor Bucurescu, the weekly newspaper Primăvara appears in 1921, with 2,000 copies per week, through which it exposes the realities of the town and the aspirations of the locals, and from 1923 the Primăvara calendar is published. After 1990, an attempt was made to republish the newspaper Primăvara by the Town Hall, but, due to lack of funds, it was not published. Since 2000, only the Town Hall newsletter has been published in the town; magazines for internal use are also published at the Ioan Jebelean Theoretical High School (Necuvântul) and at the General School no. 1 (Lumea Noastră). Tourist attractions include the 19th century Nákó Castle (housing the Cultural House and the Town Museum), the Serbian Orthodox church (1787), the Roman Catholic church (1824) with a crypt of the Nákó family, the Romanian Orthodox church (1903) and the Reformed church (1913).

Sânnicolau Mare is connected to the Romanian national road network by national road 6 and national road 59C, being also crossed by county road 59F, which provides a direct road connection with the Beba Veche border crossing point at ro.

The town does not have an organized urban transport, due to its concentric configuration, the public service providing only two buses for transporting people to the Main Station, upon arrival of passenger trains from Timișoara and Arad. Private operators provide passenger transport between Sânnicolau Mare and neighboring localities or other counties.