Bigar

Bigar ( BIGR Czech, German Faster rest, Hungarian biger ) is a predominantly from Banat Czechs inhabited village in the district of Caras -Severin, Romania.

Geography

The village is located in the Banat Mountains in the south of Romania about 10 km from the Danube River at an elevation of about 550 m. It belongs to the municipality of the Romanian-speaking village Berzasca.

History

Bigar was founded in 1827 by immigrants from Central Bohemia. Most immigrants came from around Litoměřice, Plzeň, Klatovy and Chrudim. They were recruited for military reasons to settle here to populate the hitherto sparsely populated mountain range on the military strategic Danube frontier. The village belonged to the garrison Berzasca. The German place name derives from General Andreas Schneller, who spent the early days one night.

Unlike other villages in the Banat Czechs such as Ravensca here agriculture had only a minor role, as the clay soils of the area are extremely infertile. The main source of income was the coal mining industry, which plays an important role to this day, albeit only one pit is active.

While 1934 still 610 people in the village lived, the population had already dropped to 1991 to 360. After the fall of the Ceauşescu regime of population decline due to increasing migration began primarily the young continue to increase, so that in 2002 only 257 people lived in Bigar.

Map

Club českých turistů: Turistická Mapa Banat, M 1: 100,000. 1st edition. Freytag & Berndt, Prague 2001, ISBN 80-85999-88-9 ( map and guide, Czech / Romanian / English).