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 (germ. Neuhof) in the socalled Bergsau area. The Bergsau is a part of a landscape called Banater Hecke. It consists of a chain of hills covered by forests, fields and pastures, which is extended from Pischia (germ. Bruckenau) and the Bentscheker forest to what is nowadays the border to the district of Arad.In the year 1718, after 164 years of Turkish occupation the Banat area was put under austrian rule by the peace-treaty of Passarowitz. After that german colonists were settled during three periods, the so-called "Schwabenzuege".
Carlottenburg, like all villages in the municipality of Bogda (germ. Neuhof), was built in 1771 during the second (1763-1772) period.
They were built by the will of the Earl of Clary and Aldringen, who was appointed President of the Banat in 1769. The construction works went on under supervision of Carl Samuel Neumann Edler of Bucholt, an civil servant of the "Landesadministration". 30 [Petri] or 32 [Griselini] families were settled there. 67 of the colonists came from the region east of Trient, 12 from Lothringen, 10 from Baden-Württemberg, 8 from Hungary, 7 from Rheinland and Rheinpfalz, 6 from Austria, 3 from Bavaria and individoals from other regions.
The etymology of the village name is not known [Fortiu]. For sure it was not named after the wife of the President [Petri]. The name Barita [Toroc] is not historically documented.
The colonists were handed over 412 cadastral acre (1 cadastral acre = 0,5755 ha).
During the handover of the Banat area to Hungary in 1778 the area was mapped in detail for the first time. Three maps regarding Charlottenburg can be admired in the Urbarium.
From 1780 on emperor Joseph II offered the villages, owned by the chamber, to the aristocrats on auction sale.
Due to this the owners changed a few times:
- 1782 Posfay Joszef
- 1814 Karl prince Schwarzenberg
- 18xx Peter Thököly de Kevermes
- 1838 Georg Simon baron Sina de Hodos et Kizdia
- 1886 Ansatasia Baronin Sina, married count Wimpffen
- 1891 Siegfried count Wimpffen
- 1921 Agrarian reform in Romania, expropriation of the count, the ground was distributed to the peasants.
Milestones:
- 1875-1876 the church was built in honor of the holy trinity by the family Sina de Hodos et Kizdia
- 1895-1896 the railway station for the Bergsau area, called Sarlota was built. It is situated 2 km away from Charlottenburg
- 1896 the school was built. Before that the classes took place in a room of house no. 57
- on the 14th of January 1945, 43 men and women were deported to Russia in order of forced labour. Six of them did not return home
- 1946 expropriation (nationalisation) of land
- 1964 electrification of the village and the Bergsau
- 1974 the countryroad to Charlottenburg was tared
In that year 1771, MDCCLXXI...
- Empress Maria Theresia (1717-1780) reigned in Vienna
- The first german newspaper in the south-east of Europe "Temeswarer Nachrichten" - Temeswarer News appears
- There was a famine in Germany
- J. W. v. Goethe wrote the "Götz von Berlichingen"
- Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh
- Apears the first edition of "Encyclopedia Britannica"
- W. A. Mozart experienced great success during his 2nd trip to Italy
- James Cook returns to England after his first voyage to the Pacific Ocean with HMS Endeavour
- Charles Messier discovers in the constellation Virgo the first galaxy, Messier 49 (also known as M 49 or NGC 4472)
- Richard Arkwright built the world's first water-powered mill at Cromford - first years of the industrial revolution
- In Resita was started the first blast furnace
- and the number Pi, π which is so important for a round village like Charlottenburg, was calculated for just 127 digits [Blatner]
Regular designed round village, the only one of this type in the Banat area. The inner diameter is about 210 m.
On 5th of March, 1779 Johann Caspar Steube writes about the village in his third letter from Temeswar [Steube]:
"I would like to give you a chorograpie about this village, which may be unique in its kind. In the middle of the village there is a well with good water and with a roof. This well is surounded by a perfect circle of mulberies. Around this plantation there is a round treeless square and around this square there is again a round range of mulberies. Behind these trees the houses are also built in a circle. Each house has got a wide court with the necessary stables and barns, behind this court there is a garden and behind the garden there is a vineyard. None of the houses is an inch higher than the others and all of them have the same distance one from the other."
Griselini wrote in the year 1780: "I liked the layout of Charlottenburg, which forms a circle round a mulbery plantation, very much". The following plan is taken out of the book Griselini wrote. More old maps can be found under the menu Urbarium.
One still can find today 34 old mulberies in the village. Some of them could have been planted during the settlement.
It has been told that during or after World War one a biplane landed on a field next to the village. The German pilots attention was attracted by the round form of the village and he wanted to see who lives in that beautyful place.
Longitude: 21.519513000000