Șopotu Nou (, ) is a commune in

Caraș-Severin County Caraș-Severin () is a county ( județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia. The majority of its territory lies within the historical region of Banat, with a few northeastern villages considered part of Transylvania. The county seat is Reșița ...

, western

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

with a population of 1456 people. It is composed of ten villages: Cârșa Roșie (''Kersia Rosie''), Driștie, Poienile Boinei, Ravensca (; , from 1911 to 1918 ''Almásróna''), Răchita (''Rekettyő''), Stăncilova (''Sztancsilovapuszta''), Șopotu Nou, Urcu (''Urku''), Valea Răchitei (''Rakittapuszta'') and Valea Roșie (''Rosievölgy'').

Villages

Ravensca

Ravensca is one of six

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

-inhabited villages in Romania's

Banat Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...

. It is located on a hill at an altitude of ''ca.'' 750 m above sea level and about 7 km southeast of Șopotu Nou village. Of the six Czech villages in the Banat, Ravensca is located at the highest altitude and the best-preserved Czech language is spoken there. As a result of its considerable isolation, the speech is not overly influenced by Romanian and Serbo-Croatian. Ravensca is linked with the closest Czech villages of Gârnic (15 km away) and Bigăr (30 km away) by being decorated with the red mark designated by the Czech Tourists' Club. Local inhabitants make their living mainly in agriculture, electricity having been introduced as late as 1994. Ravensca has the most scenic location of the Banat's Czech villages, making it a favourite destination of romantic travelers. However, life on the mountain range is very hard, particularly in winter, when the village is almost completely cut off from the rest of the world. This is perhaps the reason for the rapid decrease in residents. The village was founded in 1827. In 1922, a Roman Catholic church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary was built, being consecrated to St. Martin. In 1925 the village had 586 inhabitants; by 1991 the population had fallen to 235 (230 of whom were Czechs), dropping to slightly over 120 in 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sopotu Nou Communes in Caraș-Severin County Localities in Romanian Banat