Stories from Sârbova village

In 1935, in Sârbova, a village from the Banat region near the city of Buziaş, a team of specialists of the Banat-Crişana Social Institute (Institutul Social Banat-Crişana) was arriving. For an entire month, they did research and gathered information from the locals, with the purpose of finding out the reasons for the depopulation phenomenon, which […]

The Marius Matei ethnographic collection

In Giroc, a rich commune from the Timişoara suburbs, one of the most authentic collections of traditional Romanian costumes from the plain area of Banat is carefully kept. The result of over 12 years of meticulous search, enthusiasm, effort and expense, today has resulted in a collection of over 1000 pieces of clothing and accessories […]

The First Pharmacy in a Mountain Region of Banat

Many popular national and European premiers have been hosted in the Oraviţa habitat, the old administrative-economic centre of the mountain area of Banat. Among these we consider the following to have been the most popular: the first theatre in present-day Romania; the first railroad of the present-day Romanian rail system (Oraviţa – Baziaş); and the […]

The Putna village of Banat

Putna is a village that belongs to the Prigor commune (in the Caraș-Severin county), located on the Putna Valley at the bottom of the Almăjului Mountains. We were over there when searching for the ancient watermills, similar to those from Rudăria. But, how it often happens during our research trips, in Putna we have discovered […]

The watermills of Rudăria

In Banat, at the bottom of the Almăjului Mountains, hides one of the largest and most spectacular molinological reservations in all of South-East Europe. The 22 dip bucket watermills of Rudăria (Caraș-Severin county) delight through their vernacular architecture and beautify the Rudărica River banks over a distance of 3 km. Although they date since the […]

The “Tower on the Hill” of Grădinari

During the summer of last year, traveling towards Oraviţa, our attention was caught by this isolated stone tower, perched upon a hill, close to Grădinari village. We kept wondering about its story and, not so long ago, we went back in order to find all about it. The mysterious “Tower on the Hill” is 300 […]