Some of the villages (Șemlacu Mare, Șemlacu Mic, Butin, and Percosova) are located south of Gătaia around the Șumigu Hill, an extinct volcano in the Tisza Plain,[4] along the Moravița, Crivaia, and Clopodia streams, tributaries to the left of Bârzava, and Sculia is also located on the Bârzava River but west of Gătaia, occupying the northernmost position in this administrative unit.

[7] In many documents from the Middle Ages, Romanian names such as Dunca or Dragul appear in connection with the inhabitants.

[6] According to Hungarian historian Elek Fényes [hu], Gătaia was a "Vlach" (Romanian) settlement at that time.

In 1823 Gătaia was sold by tax authorities to the feudal lords Ludovic and Carol Gorove, who decided to colonize it with Hungarians.

[14] The first sanitary precinct was established by order of the Minister of Health of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1901, when the first state physician, Ludovic Kardos, was appointed.

[14] The Gătaia Psychiatric Hospital started operating in December 1966, being built on the site of a former abandoned barracks, in the immediate vicinity of a locust and fir forest.

The founding fathers of this hospital were professor Eduard Pamfil and lecturer Ștefan Stössel.