Straža, Vršac
Straža (; ; ) is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Vršac municipality, in the South Banat District, Vojvodina province. Name In Serbian, the village is known as Straža (Стража), in Romanian as Straja, in Hungarian as Strázsa (later Temesőr), and in German as Lagerdorf. History Straža was established in the winter of 1716–17 by the Austrian imperial army as a base for soldiers sent to protect the town of Palanka from advancing Ottoman troops. After the army was recalled, several soldiers and artisans remained to form the settlement of Lagerdorf. The historian Borovski confirms that after the Ottomans were expelled, the settlement was colonized by Germans. By 1734, the settlement already had its own post office and a German mill was built near the Karaš River. By 1744, Romanian settlers began to move into the settlement mostly from the Oltenia province in lesser Wallachia. By 1782, the settlement's population swelled to over 1,000 people, 917 of which were Eastern Orthodox. It was controlled by the Ottomans between 1787–88. In October 1848, Serbian troops from Alibunar were stationed in the settlement because of advancing Hungarian troops. The Serb army was nearly destroyed by Hungarian troops under the