In this easy half-day tour of Northern Banat, we will learn the intriguing story of the settlers of Banat and we will see beautiful places that these people left behind.

The Banat province was conquered by the Habsburg Empire at the beginning of the eighteenth century, freeing it from Ottoman rule. In a way, the province became the private property of the Habsburgs, and as a result, they began sending a large number of colonists there. Between 1718 and 1772 over 160.000 colonists were brought here. Most of them were Germans, but there were also Romanians, Serbians, Italians, French, and Spaniards. We will drive through their villages and find out their stories.

Along the way, we will see the village of Zăbrani, the birthplace of Adam Muller Guttenbrunn, one of the Banat natives who became famous and wrote a lot about the world he belonged to. We will see how a colonist village was planned and learn about the customs that governed this world for centuries. Then we’ll go to Radna’s former Franciscan monastery, the most important pilgrimage site for Banat’s Catholic colonists.

The second part of the trip will take us to Altringen, where we will visit a cosy German guesthouse transformed from an old German house and have time for coffee, tea, and cakes or lunch. Finally, we will explore Charlottenburg, the only circular village in Romania, also built by the Austrian administration for the 32 settlers’ families who came there in 1771.