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Ečka (Serbian Cyrillic: Ечка, pronounced [êtʃka]; Romanian: Ecica, Hungarian: Écska) is a village located in the Zrenjanin municipality, in the Central Banat District of Serbia. It is situated in the autonomous province of Vojvodina on the Begej river.
In Serbian, the village is known as Ečka (Ечка), in Romanian as Ecica or Ecica Română, in German as Deutsch-Etschka, and in Hungarian as Écska (until 1899: Német-Écska).
The village was merged with former settlement known as Mala Ečka (Мала Ечка) in Serbian, Alt Etschka in German, and Román-Écska or Olahécska in Hungarian.
The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 4,513 people (2002 census).
Kaštel Ečka is a historic hunting castle and a cultural monument. The estate was purchased by the Lazar family in 1781 and developed over the following decades. At the Castle's grand opening ceremony in 1820, Franz Liszt played piano as a nine-year-old boy. Kaštel Ečka estate includes the main building, horse stables, and the water tower.[2][3]
In 1870, after the death of the last male member of the Lazar family and the castle owner, Sigismund Lázár de Ecska (d. 1870), his widow, Viktoria Edelspacher de Gyorok (1841-1895) inherited the castle. In 1871, due to her second marriage to Prince Egon Maximilian (1832-1892), the castle becomes the property of the House of Thurn und Taxis, later owned by the families of Harnoncourt and Pallavicini until the end of the WWII.[4]
There are three churches in Ečka:[3]
The first school in Ečka was established in 1711, within the Serbian Orthodox Church. New school was built in 1894, with initial classes in Romanian language and classes in Serbian added at a later date. Today's school "Dr Aleksandar Sabovljev" was established in 1957, and still has classes both in Romanian and Serbian.[8]
