During this mini-series, we will travel through Romania, and we will learn about particularly beautiful and unique places located here. Today we will talk about the only circular settlement in Romania: Charlottenburg, the perfectly round shaped village.
CHARLOTTENBURG – the only settlement , in Romania, with a perfect rounded shape.
About Charlottenburg...
In Western Romania, in Timis county, Banat's historical region, there is a settlement with a special aspect, which makes it unique in Romania and perhaps also in Europe. It is about the village of Charlottenburg, or as the Romanians call it "Sharlota".
The village is hidden between the hills that separate Timisoara from Lipova. The hills are covered by forests, but also beautiful meadows. It is a picturesque place, particularly beautiful, worth seeing. The village is small, with only about 120 inhabitants, and the houses are all set in a perfect circle, which makes it unique and so beautiful.
History
The village has been created by the German settlers in 1771, according to the plans of the Austrian architect Carl Samuel Neumann Edler von Buchholt, who at that time worked as an official at the Salt Office in Lipova. He coordinated the construction of the settlement, and according to the plan the locality would be circular with an inner diameter of 210 meters.
32 families with 131 people settled in the village. To see what the village looked like at its beginnings, we will read below the letter written in 1779, eight years after the establishment of the town, by the shoemaker Johann Steube:
"This village could be the only one with a circular shape. In the middle of the village there is a fountain with very good water. The fountain is surrounded by a perfectly rounded mulberry trees plantation. Around this plantation is a round-tree market without trees, and around the market is a new round shaped plantation of mulberry trees. Behind these trees are the houses, which are also built in a circle shape. Each house has a large courtyard, stables and barns. Behind the courtyard is a garden, and behind the garden is vine. No house has a finger higher than the other and all are at the same distance from each other. "
Today we can still find 34 mulberry trees from those planted back then.
During the First World War, a biplan german airplane landed on a field next to the village. Still amazed by what he saw above, the German pilot, wanted to get in touch with the inhabitants of the settlement.
Charlottenburg has been declared a historic monument.
Charlottenburg today:
Now there is only one German ethnic resident, Peter Trimper, 76, the only one of the seven brothers of the Trimper family who did not go to Germany. The rest of the ethnic Germans, called Swabians, went to their country of origin. Now the settlement remained silent, hidden between the hills. It is inhabited by Romanians, who live in quietly disturbed times only by the sound of the bell in the church tower. Sometimes the quiet of the village is interrupted by a car with tourists coming to see the wonders of western Romania.
So if you ever come to Romania, do not forget to visit Charlottenburg. worth seeing.