Prehistory The city's development on the middle course of
Săsar River, in the middle of a
plateau with a warm Mediterranean-like climate, has facilitated living conditions since the
Palaeolithic.
Ancient times During the
Bronze Age the region was inhabited by
Thracian tribes. Later, it was included in the
Dacian Kingdom formed by the King
Burebista when the mining exploration began, as the area is rich in
gold and
silver.
Middle Ages Baia Mare is first mentioned in written documents released by
Charles I of Hungary in 1328 under the name of
Rivulus Dominarum (). In 1347 the town was identified in documents by
Louis I of Hungary as an important
medieval town with a prosperous
mining industry. Its rules of organisation were characteristic of the "free towns" of that time. In 1411 the town and its surrounding areas, including the mines, were transferred into the property of the
Hunyadi family by
Sigismund, King of Hungary (later also Holy Roman Emperor), who recognised
Janos Hunyadi's contribution to stop the
Turkish invasion of Europe. The town went into a period of prosperity, during which the St. Stephen Cathedral was built. Today the cathedral tower is one of the best-known of the town's historic landmarks (see
Stephen's Tower).
Modern period {{multiple image |align=left |direction=vertical |total_width=200 The first
school, named
Schola Rivulina, was opened in Baia Mare in 1547 by the
Reformed Church following the
Protestant Reformation. In 1703
Pintea Viteazul and his band managed to free the town for a short period of time from the
Austrian rule, under which it belonged the royal treasury. Since then Pintea is considered an important figure in the town's history, representing the idea of freedom. The Budești Church has Pintea's chain mail shirt and a helmet, reportedly worn by him in his battles. The Museum of Baia Mare displays his weapons and their harness. In 1748 the city's
mining industry made a leap forward when the Austrian authorities created the headquarters of "Superior Mining". In the late nineteenth century,
Simon Hollósy,
István Réti,
János Thorma,
Béla Iványi-Grünwald, and
Károly Ferenczy were among numerous young Hungarians who left the area to study the arts in
Munich, as Hungary lacked an academy of art in those times. Simon Hollósy, the young Hungarian painter, was teaching in his studio new western European techniques. Some of those young painters decided to settle down together in Baia Mare, then called Nagybánya, to work on art. They persuaded Hollósy to join them and founded the
Nagybánya artists' colony, working on naturalism and
plein air painting. The artists' colony became known later on for influencing the development of twentieth-century Hungarian and Romanian art. Following
World War I, the
Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved, and in 1920, Baia Mare officially became part of the
Kingdom of Romania. It became part of Hungary again in 1940 by the
Second Vienna Award, until the end of
World War II. Near the end of that period, the city hosted the
Baia Mare ghetto. After the war, the city was returned to Romania. Shortly after World War II in postwar development, the town of Baia Mare started to grow both in population and inhabited area. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new
town centre was developed with
modern architecture buildings and structures.
Cyanide spill On 30 January 2000, Baia Mare was the site of what has been considered
Europe's worst ecological disaster since
Chernobyl, which took place at gold mining company Aurul, a joint-venture of the Australian company Esmeralda Exploration and the Romanian government. The tailing dam at the gold processing plant broke and 70 tons of toxic
cyanide and
heavy metal-laced waste water escaped into the River
Tisza and into Hungary, making its way into the Danube and affecting Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Despite the accident's happening in Romania, much of the adverse effects were suffered in Hungary. The accident prompted Hungary to ban the use of cyanide in gold processing and it has urged the rest of Europe to do the same. Since 2013, local
Romanian (
Romani) businessman
Daniel Boldor has been operating out of the CUPROM mine and refinery outside of Baia Mare, selling what he claims are under-extracted
ore concentrate shipments to international metal traders in China, South Korea, Thailand, and the United States. Based on claims that the material was, in fact, worthless
mining sludge, the
public prosecutor's office in
Constanța filed an indictment against Boldor in June 2018 on charges of money laundering, customs fraud, document forgery, the collection and transport of hazardous waste, and tax evasion. According to the mayor, this wall was designed to "prevent traffic accidents", while pro-democracy organizations say it amounts to a "
roma wall" and "institutionalized racism". The wall nevertheless proved popular with the majority population and the mayor was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2012. ==Coat of arms==