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http://www.romaniajournal.ro/charlottenburg-the-only-circular-village-in-romania/

Charlottenburg, the only circular village in Romania

Posted by: Ramona Ciortescu
<http://www.romaniajournal.ro/author/ramona-ciortescu/> in TRAVEL
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*Located approximately 50 km away from the western city of Timisoara,
Charlottenburg is the only round village in the country. 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 families of Swabians who came
to the region as part of the second wave of German colonization from Baden
Wurttenberg, from Lorraine and South Tyrol. Historians say these families
brought with them the plans to build their round village. The beautiful
village plans from the baroque era have been preserved.

‘In the middle of the village there is a covered well with very good water.
Around the well one can find a perfect circle of mulberry trees behind
which there are houses with stables and barns. Then there are the gardens
where people plant vine. Every house is just as tall as the next and all of
them have the same distance one from another, following a lovely symmetric
style; the same symmetry applies to the four entrances of the village’,
Johann Kaspar Steube described Charlottenburg  on the 5th of March 1779.

The villagers used to be mainly farmers, only few of them worked in the
forest or in the city. One of the traditions specific to the area is
hunting, the property near the village used to be exploited for this
purpose by the Romanian Royal Court in the first place, then by the members
of the Communist Party and in the end by the amateur hunters all over
Europe. This village’s population reached its climax in 1880, today
counting only 300 inhabitants and only two of them still have Swabian
roots, Peter Trimper and Maria Ana Backin, the last Swabian people of the
village.