Socol is a commune in Caraş-Severin County

Caras-Severin County

Caraș-Severin is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Banat and few villages in Transylvania, with the county seat at Reșița.-Demographics:The county is part of the Danube-Kris-Mureș-Tisza euroregion....

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 (in the Clisura Dunării

Clisura Dunarii

Defileul Dunării, locally known also as Clisura Dunării is a geographical region in Romania. It is located in southern Banat, along the northern bank of the river Danube...

area of Banat

Banat

The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...

). In 2002, the population of the commune (comprising five villages) numbered 2,301 people and its population was ethnically mixed. It is composed of five villages: Baziaş, Câmpia, Pârneaura, Socol and Zlatiţa.

Sokol means "hawk" in Serbian. The commune is officially bilingual, with both Romanian

Romanian language

Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

 and Serbian

Serbian language

Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....

 being used as working languages on public signage and in administration, education and justice.

Demographics

In 2002, population included:

• 49.54% Serbs
  Serbs
  The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
  
  
• 43.15% Romanians
  Romanians
  The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
  
  
• 4.60% Czechs
• 1.21% Hungarians

Baziaş

Baziaş is a village of Socol commune, notable as the place where the Danube enters Romania, and where, in 1854, the first railway line was opened on the territory of present-day Romania—the line ran from Baziaş to Oraviţa

Oravita

Oravița is a town in southwestern Romania, in Caraș-Severin County, with a population of 15,524 in 2000. Its theatre is a fully functional scaled down version of the Burgtheater in Vienna...

, at a time when the area was under Austrian

Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...

 administration. The village has a significant Serbian heritage, being the site of Baziaş Monastery, said to have been founded in 1225 by Saint Sava

Saint Sava

Saint Sava was a Serbian Prince and Orthodox monk, the first Archbishop of the autocephalous Serbian Church, the founder of Serbian law and literature, and a diplomat. Sava was born Rastko Nemanjić , the youngest son of Serbian Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja , and ruled the appanage of Hum briefly in...

while on a brief refuge there, and rebuilt several times. The local forest includes several protected plant species.