New Barcelona

New Barcelona was the name of a settlement of Catalan-Austrian exiles that existed between 1735 and 1738, created after their defeat in the War of Succession and located in the Banat of Temeswar, the current town of Zrenjanin, in the Serbian Vojvodina. The settlement was also known as Carlobagen.^[1]

The first group of exiles arrived in the autumn of 1735, and towards 1737 there were about eight hundred exiles in the Banat. The predominant group were Catalans, followed by people from other territories of the Crown of Aragon. Between 10% and 15% came from Sicily and Naples. Among the exiles, there were major figures of the war like the Nebot brothers and Captain Castellví and Obando, among others.

The settlement failed because of the advanced age of the settlers, many of them veterans of the administration and the army. The continental climate of the Banat affected the economic viability of the project to locate a city. The plague that hit Vojvodina in 1738 and the proximity of the Ottoman threat to the region were other factors that led to the end of the colony. By 1740, many exiles had already moved to Austro-Hungarian cities, especially Budapest and Vienna.^[2]

Although the Austracist exile has left no legacy in the region, it's worth mentioning that Francesc Vilana Perlas i Fàbrega, the son of the Catalan émigré and Marquis of Rialb, Ramon Frederic de Vilana-Perles i Camarasa, was governor of Temeswar from 1753 to 1759. According to Collin Thomas, his name would be the origin of the name of Perlez, a village in the municipality of Zrenjanin. [1]

References

1. ↑ "Catalans in the world 13h [sic] Century AC - 21th [sic] Century AC". Retrieved 30 October 2011. 
2. ↑ Alcoberro, Agustí (30 June 2009). "The War of the Spanish Succession in the Catalan-speaking Lands". Catalan Historical Review. Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans. 3: 69–86. doi:10.2436/20.1000.01.40. ISSN 2013-407X. Retrieved 30 October 2011.