The Krashovani (, ) are a Croat community inhabiting CaraÃÂova and Lupac in the CaraÃÂ-Severin County within Romanian Banat. They are Catholic by faith and speak a Torlakian dialect.
In Romanian, they are commonly known as CaraÃÂoveni; other variants include CarÃÂoveni, CârÃÂoveni, CotcoreÃÂi or CocoÃÂi. In Croatian, they are commonly known as Kraà ¡ovani; other variants include Karaà ¡ovani, Kraà ¡ovanje, Karaà ¡evci and Koroà ¡evci.
Krashovani, declared as Croats, form a majority in two communes of CaraÃÂ-Severin County: CaraÃÂova and Lupac.
The Krashovani adhere to the Catholic Church and identify their language as Croatian. Their dialect is regarded a sub-dialect of the Torlak dialect, a transitional dialect spoken in southeastern Serbia, westernmost Bulgaria and northeastern Macedonia.
According to the 2002 census in Romania, the population of the CaraÃÂova commune comprised 84.60% Croats, 4.96% others, 4.47% Roma, 4.41% Romanians and others. 93.12% of the population in that commune declared their mother tongue as Croatian. Only 207 persons declared Krashovani ethnicity in the 2002 census.
Their ancestors first settled CaraÃÂova in the 13th and 14th centuries from northwestern Bosnia. They formed a community in the northern plateau of the CaraÃÂ river, in seven villages, the oldest, CaraÃÂova, being mentioned in the 13th and 14th centuries while the rest are first mentioned in the 17th century.
Serbian ethnographer Jovan Cvijiàconcluded that the community was "very old settlers with origin in Crna Reka who were Catholicised"; Stanko à ½uljiàclaims that their origin is in Turopolje, in Croatia.
The CaraÃÂoveni were considered Bulgarians by some Bulgarian scientists in the first half of the 20th century (such as G. Cibrus, M. Mladenov, K. Telbizov, and T. Balkanski), partially based on their view that Torlakian-speakers are ethnically Bulgarians.
According to the Austrian population census there were over 10,000 CaraÃÂoveni in Banat. In the 1847 census over 10,000 people declared as CaraÃÂoveni. In 1896 the Austro-Hungarian census around 7,500 CaraÃÂoveni were listed. The same was stated by the authorities of the Kingdom of Romania in 1940. Their number dropped to 2,775 in 1992.
The Union of Croats of Romania (, ZHR; , UCR) is an ethnic minority political party in Romania representing the Croatian community.