Bocicoiu Mare, Maramureș

Bocicoiu Mare (Nagybocskó or Újbocskó, Великий Бичків) is a village in Maramureş County, Romania. It is the seat of the commune of Bocicoiu Mare

History
The village was first mentioned in 1373, by the name Boshko. Its name derives from a Slavic word meaning "bull". From 1556 it belonged to the Báthory family. By 1711 a mansion already stood here. After the failed revolution led by Francis II Rákóczi, Germans settled down in the area.

The village was known as Németbocskó ("German Bocskó", later called Újbocskó or "New Bocskó") and was united with two villages (Nagybocskó and Kisbocskó; "Greater" and "Smaller" Bocskó) across the river, forming a greater village called Nagybocskó. This village had thus three parts: Újbocskó, which forms today's Bocicoiu Mare, and Kisbocskó and Nagybocskó, which form today's Velykyy Bychkiv.

Demographics
In 1910 the village had 5955 inhabitants: 3078 Rusyns, 1646 Hungarians and 1177 Germans. It belonged to the Hungarian county of Máramaros. After World War I the village was split in two, and the river became a natural border of the two countries (with Velykyy Bychkiv in Czechoslovakia until 1945, before being incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR).

At the 2002 census, 59.1% of inhabitants were Ukrainians, 32.4% Romanians and 8.3% Hungarians. 76.8% were Romanian Orthodox, 8.5% Roman Catholic, 8.2% Greek-Catholic and 4.7% stated they belonged to another religion.

Main sights

 * Its Roman Catholic church was built in the 14th century in Gothic style architecture, but it was rebuilt several times and lost its Gothic elements.