Brestovăț (Hungarian: Aga, until 1892 Bresztovác; German: Brestowatz; Slovak: Brestovec) is a commune in Timiș County. It is composed of five villages: Brestovăț (commune seat), Coșarii, Hodoș, Lucareț and Teș.
History
Brestovăț first appears in written history as Breztolcz in 1440; at that time, it belonged to the Șoimoș Fortress.[4] It was destroyed during the Turkish occupation and resettled in 1718–1722.[4] Turks called it Aga, an unofficial name that persisted for a while and was taken over by Hungarians and later by the Romanian administration.
Between 1735 and 1737, 113 families of Montenegrin Serbs, mostly Orthodox, settled here.[5] In 1797, Brestovăț became the property of the Lukács brothers, who colonized a large number of Hungarian and Slovak settlers here.[5] Around 1828, now a property of Iosif Gaal, it was again colonized by Hungarians from Nógrád, Nyitra and Trencsén.[5] The colonizations do not stop here, because in 1840–1845, German settlers from Bohemia arrived in Brestovăț.
Brestovăț had a population of 674 inhabitants at the 2011 census, down 18% from the 2002 census. Most inhabitants are Romanians (76.26%), larger minorities being represented by Slovaks (15.13%), Serbs (1.63%), Hungarians (1.48%) and Roma (1.19%). For 3.71% of the population, ethnicity is unknown.[6] By religion, most inhabitants are Orthodox (74.78%), but there are also minorities of Roman Catholics (17.66%) and Baptists (2.82%). For 3.71% of the population, religious affiliation is unknown.[7]
