The first recorded mention of Bara dates from 1367. 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. 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. == Demographics ==