Župa

Župa, zhupa, żupa (Cyrillic: Жупа) is a Slavic term, notably among the Southern and Western branches of the Slavs, originally denoting various territorial and other sub-units, usually a small administrative division, especially a gathering of several villages. The term it seems, is ultimately of Avar origin.

Early Middle Ages

Originally, since nomadic times, the zupa started as an extended family, where authority rested with a pater familias (as that Latin words testifies, so it was originally with the Italic peoples), called zupan (various spellings are used, including zhupan, hugely varied in different languages). In time, some evolved into larger clans, and its origin made a hereditary principle for the succession to the chiefship logical.

The Slavs were tribes at the time of their migration to the south between 5th and 7th centuries.cn|date=July 2008 Most župas were organized according to tribes and each tribe had its own chieftain called the župan. The term it seems, is ultimately of Avar origin.

Late Middle Ages

The župas were present in Great Moravia in the 9th and 10th century. When St. Stephen of Hungary organized the Hungarian Kingdom in the 11th century, the Magyars adopted the Slavonic term "župan" to "ispán" for the head of their new royal provinces or 'counties'.cn|date=July 2008

The Slovaks and the Croats used the terms župa, župan and/or županija for the counties in the Kingdom of Hungary and Croatia. German language translation of the word for those counties was "Komitat" (from Latin "Comitatus", 'countship') during the Middle Ages, but later it was "Gespanschaft" (picking up the "span" root that previously came from "župan").

The župas were prominent in the Balkans among the South Slavs throughout the Middle Ages. De Administrando Imperio (10th c. Byzantine text) talks of "horion" as the territorial units of the Slavs, referring to the župe.

The župas were also an administrative unit in the First Bulgarian Empire, a subdivision of a larger unit called comitatus.

Grand Župan ("Veliki župan", Cyrillic: Велики жупан), is also a Serbian medieval title (equivalent to the prince) of the rulers of Rascia from 11th to early 13th century.

The župan title was also used in Wallachia (in modern Romania).

Modern times

The Croats preserved the term "župa" until the modern times as the name for local clerical units (parishes) and slightly modified "županija" as the name for their regional government (the counties of Croatia).

The Slovaks have also preserved the term: it was used as the official name of administrative units of Slovakia within Czechoslovakia in 1918 - 1928 and then again in the Slovak Republic during WWII in 1940-1945. Today it is used semi-officially as an alternative name for the "Autonomous Regions" of Slovakia (whose territory is identical with that of the administrative Regions).

When Slovenia was partitioned between Italy, Hungary, and Germany on 17 April 1941, in the Italian portion, named province of Lubiana, the new administration was lead by an Italian High Commissioner, but there also were Presidents of the Council of Zhupans of Lubiana:
*27 May 1941 - 1941 Marko Natlachen, the last Ban of Drava (September 1935 - 17 April 1941; b. 1886 - d. 1943)
*1941 - 7 June 1942 ?
*7 June 1942 - 20 September 1943 Leon Rupnik (b. 1880 - d. 1946)

ee also

*Grand ŽupanCompare:
*shire
*Gau

ources and references

* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Slovenia.html WorldStatesmen - here Slovenia]