CHARLOTTENBURG – CIRCULAR VILLAGE

CHARLOTTENBURG – CIRCULAR VILLAGE

Charlottenburg or Charlotenburg; Sarlota (Romanian); Sarlotavar (Hungarian), is settled in the western part of Romania, in the Romanian Banat, district of Timis, municipality of Bogda (German: Neuhof), in the so-called Bergsau area. The Bergsau is part of a landscape called Banater Hecke. It consists of a chain of hills covered by forests, fields and pastures, extending from Pischia (German: Bruckenau) and the Bentscheker forest to what is nowadays the border with the district of Arad.

In the year 1718, after 164 years of Turkish occupation, the Banat area was placed under Austrian rule by the Peace Treaty of Passarowitz. After that, German colonists were settled in the region during three periods, the so-called “Schwabenzüge”.

Charlottenburg, like all villages in the municipality of Bogda (German: Neuhof), was built in 1771 during the second colonization period (1763–1772). It was established at the will of the Earl of Clary and Aldringen, who was appointed President of the Banat in 1769. The construction works were carried out under the supervision of Carl Samuel Neumann Edler von Bucholt, a civil servant of the “Landesadministration”.

Thirty (according to Petri) or thirty-two (according to Griselini) families were settled here. Sixty-seven of the colonists came from the region east of Trient, twelve from Lorraine, ten from Baden-Württemberg, eight from Hungary, seven from Rheinland and Rheinpfalz, six from Austria, three from Bavaria, and individuals from other regions.

The etymology of the village name is not known (Fortiu). It was certainly not named after the wife of the President (Petri). The name Barita (Toroc) is not historically documented.

The colonists were granted 412 cadastral acres (1 cadastral acre = 0.5755 hectares).

In 1778, during the handover of the Banat area to Hungary, the region was mapped in detail for the first time. Three maps regarding Charlottenburg can be admired in the Urbarium.

From 1780 onward, Emperor Joseph II offered villages owned by the Chamber to aristocrats through auction sales. As a result, ownership changed several times:

• 1782 – Posfay Joszef
 • 1814 – Karl, Prince of Schwarzenberg
 • 18xx – Peter Thököly de Kevermes
 • 1838 – Georg Simon, Baron Sina de Hodos et Kizdia
 • 1886 – Anastasia, Baroness Sina, married Count Wimpffen
 • 1891 – Siegfried, Count Wimpffen
 • 1921 – Agrarian reform in Romania; expropriation of the count and distribution of land to peasants

Milestones

• 1875–1876 – The church was built in honor of the Holy Trinity by the Sina de Hodos et Kizdia family
 • 1895–1896 – The railway station for the Bergsau area, called Sarlota, was built, located 2 km from Charlottenburg
 • 1896 – The school was built; before that, classes were held in a room of house no. 57
 • January 14, 1945 – Forty-three men and women were deported to Russia for forced labor; six never returned
 • 1946 – Expropriation (nationalization) of land
 • 1964 – Electrification of the village and the Bergsau region
 • 1974 – The access road to Charlottenburg was asphalted

The Year 1771 (MDCCLXXI)

• Empress Maria Theresia ruled in Vienna
 • The first German newspaper in southeastern Europe, Temeswarer Nachrichten, appeared
• A famine occurred in Germany
• J. W. von Goethe wrote Götz von Berlichingen
• Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh
• The first edition of Encyclopedia Britannica appeared
• W. A. Mozart enjoyed great success during his second journey to Italy
• James Cook returned to England after his first voyage to the Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour
• Charles Messier discovered the galaxy Messier 49 in the constellation Virgo
• Richard Arkwright built the world’s first water-powered mill in Cromford
• The first blast furnace was started in Reșița
• The number π was calculated to 127 digits

Charlottenburg is a regularly designed round village, the only one of its kind in the Banat region. The inner diameter of the circle is approximately 210 meters.

On March 5, 1779, Johann Caspar Steube wrote about the village in his third letter from Temeswar:

“I would like to give you a chorography of this village, which may be unique of its kind. In the middle of the village there is a well with good water and a roof. This well is surrounded by a perfect circle of mulberry trees. Around this plantation there is a round treeless square, and around this square there is another ring of mulberry trees. Behind these trees, the houses are also built in a circle. Each house has a wide courtyard with the necessary stables and barns; behind the courtyard there is a garden and behind the garden a vineyard. None of the houses is an inch higher than the others, and all have the same distance from one another.”

Griselini wrote in 1780: “I liked the layout of Charlottenburg very much, which forms a circle around a mulberry plantation.”

Even today, 34 old mulberry trees can still be found in the village, some of which may have been planted during the settlement period.

It is said that during or after World War I, a biplane landed on a field near the village. The German pilot’s attention was drawn by the round shape of the settlement, and he wanted to see who lived in such a beautiful place.

Located approximately 50 km west of the city of Timișoara, Charlottenburg is the only round village in Romania. Due to its uniqueness, the round-shaped village has been declared a historical monument by the Ministry of Culture.

The village was established around 1770 by 32 Swabian families who came to the region as part of the second wave of German colonization from Baden-Württemberg, Lorraine, and South Tyrol. Historians say these families brought with them the plans to build their round village. The beautiful Baroque-era village plans have been preserved.

The villagers were mainly farmers; only a few worked in forestry or in the city. One tradition specific to the area is hunting. The land near the village was first used by the Romanian Royal Court, then by members of the Communist Party, and later by amateur hunters from all over Europe.

The village population reached its peak in 1880. Today, Charlottenburg has about 300 inhabitants, only two of whom still have Swabian roots: Peter Trimper and Maria Ana Backin.

Fauna and Biodiversity

Thanks to its special pedoclimatic conditions, Romania boasts one of the richest faunas in Europe. Besides the local species of large carnivores, over time several new animals settled in these favorable ecosystems. They adapted and formed viable populations, enhancing biodiversity. These “immigrants” arrived either accidentally, as a result of natural phenomena such as climate change or in search of food, or were introduced intentionally for hunting purposes.

Known since antiquity for its tasty meat, the mouflon—an ancestor of the wild sheep—once lived throughout the mountainous regions of the Mediterranean area. Today, it survives only in isolated areas of Corsica, Cyprus, Sardinia, and some remote parts of Anatolia.

In Romania, mouflons were introduced to southern Dobrogea, southeastern Romania, where the rocky soil, abundant forest springs, and climate resemble Mediterranean conditions. Ion Bogdan, Director of the Constanța Forestry Directorate, explains:

“The paddock at Negureni is part of an intensive game-breeding farm, focusing especially on mouflons. Besides mouflons, roe deer are also bred, and we intend to introduce fallow deer starting this year. We have 65 mouflons in a paddock covering 270 hectares. Before 2004, when the paddock was expanded, it covered only 1.5 hectares and hosted 15 mouflons, whose living conditions were not very good. Therefore, we expanded the paddock and brought another 30 young animals from Austria, which, together with the existing ones, formed a healthy population.”

The Fallow Deer

The fallow deer is a strong and imposing animal. Its mythological link to the sun is explained by the association between its long, branched antlers and the sun’s rays or tree branches. These antlers renew periodically, which is why the deer is also a symbol of regeneration and rejuvenation in nature.

It is quite unusual for a Romanian traditional household, especially in the north of the country, not to have at least one deer head to guard the family’s welfare. They also say the fallow deer shows the way toward light.

Ovidiu Ionescu, Vice-Dean of the Brașov Forestry Faculty, states:

“The fallow deer, or Dama dama in Latin, is an imported species in Romania. Its history is quite interesting and it has been appreciated for its beauty since antiquity. Roman emperors spread the species throughout the empire. It reached Romania later, during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the first populations were established in the west of the country.

A major role in spreading fallow deer in Romania was played by the Șarlota Hunting Park, Banat, western Romania. This was the main source of colonization for the entire country, and over time around 40 populations were created. During the communist regime, these populations existed in 27 counties with favorable conditions. The largest population was in Scornicești, the birthplace of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, where many presidential hunting parties were held. Appreciated for both its beauty and tasty meat, the fallow deer has integrated very well into Romania’s fauna, adding value to biodiversity.”

The Șarlota Hunting Estate

In western Romania, 44 km from Timișoara, lies the oldest and largest hunting area in the country, established by German settlers in 1771. It is the Șarlota hunting estate (Charlottenburg in German), which today covers 1,200 hectares of forest.

A hunting chalet was built here in 1890, and starting in 1902 the surrounding forests were transformed into a hunting park, initially covering 18 hectares. The park was populated with fallow deer brought from Serbia, then from Bohemia, Germany, and Austria. Aristocrats regularly came here to hunt and relax.

After World War I, the forest and the park were seized by the state.

The king of the Șarlota forests is the fallow deer, and the area boasts the largest fallow deer population in the country. These forests are highly attractive to hunters from Romania and abroad.

To celebrate 110 years since the establishment of the Șarlota Hunting Park, Romsilva – the National Forestry Authority – opened the Charlottenburg Hunting Museum as a source of information on hunting and game in the Banat region. Andrei Kiss, a specialist with the Banat Museum in Timișoara, explains:

“Any natural sciences museum is meant to present collections and, within them, peculiarities of nature and, if possible, everything that biodiversity entails. A number of biological principles regarding the knowledge and appreciation of biodiversity can be found in such a museum.”

Currently, Romsilva manages 11 hunting paddocks used to breed species such as fallow deer, wild boar, roe deer, and mouflon.