Zaránd County

Zaránd County (Hungarian: Zaránd vármegye, Latin: Comitatus Zarandiensis) was an administrative unit of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Principality of Transylvania from the middle ages until 1876.

[1][2] Located mainly in the Fehér-Körös/Crișul Alb river valley, today its former territory lies mostly in Romania, with a small amount in south-eastern Hungary.

In the 16th century Zaránd was part of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and later the Partium territories of the Principality of Transylvania.

During a period of significant administrative reform in the Austrian Empire following the Revolutions of 1848 the traditional counties of Transylvania (including the Partium territories of Zaránd, Kraszna, Közép-Szolnok and Kővár) were abolished and reorganised into five Kreise (districts; literally "circles") in 1851; Zaránd's territory was incorporated into the Kreis of Karlsburg.

Zaránd county was finally permanently dissolved as part of the 1876 administrative reform in the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen; most of its territory became part of Hunyad County as the Körösbánya and Brád districts, with a smaller western part being merged into Arad county as the district of Nagyhalmágy.