Year of the Wood Snake on the Begei Coast

While I'm sitting on the terrace of Kaštela Ečka, a statue of St. Hubertus in knight's garb watches me from deep below from the palace garden. He is cloaked, with a hunting horn and a spear, and at his feet lies a deer with a cross between its horns. Hubertus wears leather armor, cloth pants, leather boots and a belt around his waist made of rectangular metal plates with reliefs of figures of real and mythological animals (owl, ibex, dragon, snake, buffalo...).

A horn and a woven food pouch are tied with string around the trunk. The image of the saint is idealized and is associated with the image of Jesus Christ. The monument, they say, is not unique, there are two other identical monuments in Slovenia, in Ponovic Castle near Litija and in Bistra near Ljubljana. The name Ramelmaur and the year 1846 are engraved on the plinth, almost nothing is known about the author. On the plinth, it is written that this monument is dedicated to his father by Count Felix Harnoncourt, Franz Ferdinand's personal aide-de-camp, who became the owner of this castle and estate as son-in-law.

At an auction in Vienna in 1781, the Armenian livestock trader Lazar Lukač bought a property of 217.000 chains with the villages of Ečka, Klek and Jankov Most at an auction in Vienna in 30.000. He was favored by the position, leaning on the river Begei, connected to the Tisza, which allowed him unhindered communication to supply the imperial army with live cattle and grain, which earned him the title of count. He built a castle and a smaller building in the English style on the property. He was married to Sibila Egelspaher and had sons: Janoš, Agošton, Mihalj and Jozef. The progenitor of the Lazar family died suddenly in 1793, and three months later, so did his wife. He was succeeded by his eldest son Janos, who managed the estate for 16 years, improved the stud farm with 150 thoroughbred horses - the first in Banat - which he founded with his father in 1792, opened a brewery in 1803, wrote poems... He lost his life in a duel saving the honor of a disgraced girl "At the forest ball" in Elemir, at the age of 52.

photo: r. shepherd

CHINESE WORKERS IN CHINA

Reading interesting facts from the history of the castle is interrupted by my guide through Ecka, a local who will show me what this village looks like now. Namely, according to the words of the locals, since there is no official data, there are currently more than 800 Chinese living in the village, who all work in the "Linglong" factory, which is only a few hundred meters away from the last house in the village.

My guide shows me a new house where, he says, 80 Chinese live. The building has three floors, six outdoor air-conditioning units are studded on the facade, and on the ground floor two doors are written in English as "Kitchen A" and "Kitchen B". The gate is locked, no people to be seen. They are at work, says the guide. 60 people live in an old house "on the elbow", and 60 Chinese people live in a large complex made of joined containers.

They say that every morning at six o'clock in a long column on bicycles they go five kilometers to work at the factory. Each of them has a cut-off "Jupol" bucket hanging in which all his possessions are located. There are allegedly armed guards in front of some houses, since they are prisoners who work here in exchange for a prison sentence. We didn't see them.

Hunters from the villages around Zrenjanin say that they find traps in the forest in which stray dogs and even some hunting dogs get caught. Allegedly, they are installed by the Chinese and then the meat is used for their food.

However, not everyone has a negative opinion of the new neighbors: "These people pass by my parents' company every day, they are normal, they even wave when we call them, they have never thrown trash in front of the company!", says Gala Caki, a painter originally from Zrenjanin.

"And as for the houses, for a long time our houses lived in an unfenced area that is only a kilometer from that company, and so free they would then be in danger, and nothing ever happened to them. We even have a wood where they played, and they were never hurt by any traps. On the other hand, hunters invaded our land in Ečka, on several occasions, shot, hunted game while we were preparing the Sunday barbecue. It's creepy when on your land in the middle of the day you you hear a shot and realize that someone could have been killed. The question is who is dangerous!", says Gala with a smile.

There are three churches in Ečka: the Roman Catholic Church (right next to the Castle), the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church with a wooden roof from 1711, the oldest in Banat. Near the Castle from 1820 there is also an old Water Tower, also a cultural monument.

AND ARISTOCRATS CRY, DON'T YOU

I return to the castle and continue reading the dramatic history of this place whose 21st century chapters are yet to be written.

Mariana, the last heir of the Lazar family line, was noticed at a ball in Vienna by the personal aide of the heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand, count Felix Harnoncourt. Although without their mother's blessing, they got married in Budapest (1887), and from Vienna, where the couple spent their honeymoon, they returned to Ečka. Marijana offers a certain sum to her mother to leave the property with her family, which she did. With her departure, the full 160-year rule of the Lazar family ends and the rule of Harnoncourt begins. Count Harnoncourt immediately displayed his haughty character towards both the woman and the townspeople. One December night, he threw a pregnant woman out of a carriage on the way from Bečekerek, after which she gave birth to a child and became fatally ill. The count used her condition to sign the will leaving the estate to him. She was only 26 years old. He continued with the life he led before his wife's death, trying to bring high society from Vienna and Pest to the Banat estate. Due to the more representative appearance of the park, sculptures, a fountain and other park furniture are installed. He successfully organizes hunting twice a year on the stretch from Melenaci to Čenta. This hunting ground was known even before him. In 1852, the 22-year-old Austrian emperor Franz Josef I visited it, and his nephew, the heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand, four times (1898–1901). He was known as a ruthless hunter, boasting that he had killed almost half a million different game. It was said about him that by some chance he was not killed in the Sarajevo assassination, in order to blacken all European game.

Because of the distinguished guests, one part of the hunting area with seven lakes, the rest of the Juznobečkerek lake, which stretched to the Tisza itself, was called the "Czar's Bar". Count Harnoncourt was the first to own a yacht in this area, so he also sailed Begeja and Tis with members of the Karađorđević family.

The eldest daughter of Viktorina Lazar and Prince Maximilian, Maria Luiza, whose portrait is above the hotel reception, married her German brother's tutor, Karl Karsten Lichterfelde, with whom she had six children and lived in poverty in Romania. She later remarried a bank manager in Berlin, Katzenstein, who was penniless before the Second World War. They moved to Ireland where they stayed for the rest of their lives. Her descendants have no right to inherit. Her granddaughters, Felicitas Lotc and Gabriela Roden, came to Kaštel in 2008 to see where they came from.

After the war, the castle was turned into a restaurant. It flourished in the eighties of the last century as a gathering center for hunters. At that time, 5.000 hunters per season were recorded, mostly Italians. In 2005, the castle and estate became the property of businessman Dušan Stupar. Today, Kaštel Ečka is a hotel with 45 rooms, of which seven are luxury suites.

The Chinese in Ečka celebrated the beginning of the Year of the Wooden Snake on January 29. So far from the homeland and so close to the large factory where they work, whose presence in the Banat plain has caused numerous controversies for years.

photo: r. shepherd

Factory open on Friday the 13th.

Shandong Linglong Tire Co. Ltd. (abbreviated as Linglong Tire), a Chinese tire company, has been ranked among the world's top 20 tire companies and China's top five for many years.

This company was founded in 1975 and currently has five Chinese production bases in the cities of Zhaoyuen, Dezhou, Liuzhou, Jingmen and Changchuen (under construction) and two overseas production bases in Thailand and Serbia. In addition, there are six institutions for research and development, and the number of employees reaches 16 thousand.

The company owns multiple brands for different markets, including Linglong, Atlas, Evolux, Leao, Shanling, Benchmark and other brands. The products are sold in more than 180 countries and regions and are part of the supplier system for world-famous car manufacturers such as Hongqi, Audi, Volkswagen, Ford and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi.

In November 2021, the news reached the Serbian and world media that the Vietnamese workers hired for the construction of the factory were living in slave conditions - without heating, hot water and electricity. In an attempt to "quench the crisis", the Vietnamese workers were temporarily accommodated in the rooms in Kaštela Ečka, so the "slaves" of yesterday had the privilege of sleeping under the roof of the famous building.

It was Friday, September 13, 2024, when the factory was officially opened on 370.000 square meters under the roof. At the opening, President Aleksandar Vučić pointed out that the value of the investment of "Linglong" is one billion dollars and that in 2024 the factory in Zrenjanin will have exports worth 200 million euros, and the following 500 million euros.