The Banat was a Hungarian province until 1919, administered by a “ban” appointed by the Hungarian king. Hence, this territory is called Banat. When the Banat (at that time called the “Military Frontier”) came under the administration of the Austrian governor, he began with the permission of Emperor Charles VI. to settle the territory with immigrants so that the border zone does not remain unsecured against a possible foreign invasion.

The first emigrants from Bohemia began to move to the unknown regions beyond the Danube in search of a better life in a unique area in Romania, which was an uninhabited wilderness until 1823. They were supposed to work and live and stay here despite all the hardships to this day. Their physical abilities promised the necessary youth for eventual military border service.

Six villages in untouched Romanian nature and in them the descendants of Czech immigrants. They speak old Czech, they live the way they lived in our countryside long ago and they are not dependent on modern technologies. However, the specific community has been in danger in recent years – young people are leaving and with them the hope of continuing the two-hundred-year history of the local Czechs.

People here soon got used to the local conditions and the misery that surrounded them everywhere. Where there used to be an old forest, today there are hillsides or fields surrounded by straightened stones. Unlike others, they managed to maintain their traditional material and spiritual culture of family and village life, neighborhood collective and many other local customs.

Sometimes you can also meet new immigrants who come here, enchanted by the local landscape and life, not always having a positive influence on the original environment of the living inhabitants of Banat. Let’s look into the faces of the people whose hard work of their ancestors, innate intelligence and love for the land were a guarantee that this region could once be economically entrusted to them.