Village Type Page 3 of 3 Multi-hamlet villages. These are much more likely to be found in the Balkan mountain area to the south of the Danube. A hamlet consists of 20 or fewer farmsteads and is smaller than a true village which will contain services such as a church, bar or school. A multi-hamlet village is often found in regions with a great ethnic diversity and will consist of three or even four hamlets clustered in close proximity to each other. Clusters will have developed on the basis of the language, religion or blood-relationships which form each cluster into an individual community. The total population of the cluster may be similar to that of a true village but it will lack the services and compactness. Evidence for this includes: lack of a centre to the settlement discrete and slightly separated groups of buildings proximate to other groupings lack of service functions very localised cultural identity (e.g., colour schemes / carvings unique to the settlement) Checkerboard villages These are very characteristic of the middle and lower sections of the Danube valley. Typically they are grid-iron in form with streets meeting at right-angles. They are found in the Banat area of Romania and Hungary where the Austro-Hungarian empire repopulated areas ravaged by warfare (1750 onwards). There is also an area of checkerboard villages on the plain of the Danube in the region below the Iron Gates, particularly along the border of modern-day Bulgaria and Romania. Arguably, the 'agrotowns' of the communist era, found in Russia, can also be categorised as checkerboard settlements. These planned settlements serviced the enormous collective farms which surrounded them. It is worth looking for evidence of the effect of collective farming on settlement form in this part of Romania as well. Evidence includes: grid-iron form highly planned character possible evidence of collective farming causing checkerboard form Collective settlements Under communism land in Romania was nationalised and traditional rural practice on the small scale and individual basis was wiped away across large parts of the country. This happened on the country's plains, particularly the Wallachian plain and Moldavian plain and the Transylvanian plateau. Enormous fields were put under crops or pasture and were managed in an industrial manner. Farmers were deployed into the collective farms to farm what had been their land as employees of the state (nationalised) industry. As a result some villages found themselves being extended to become the base for a collective farm, with new accommodation being built for the workers as well as new agricultural buildings. Obviously such new building was highly planned and to a national specification. Other villages were built from scratch and exhibit all of the characteristics of being a purpose built agricultural settlement. All buildings in such settlements will be built of concrete and the settlement will all date from the same period. Evidence includes: concrete structures large grain silos / animal sheds / other buildings (often in lines) highly planned nature possible present day dereliction / abandoned buildings in purpose built settlements - no church | 1 | 2 | 3 | Page 3 of 3