The history of the village

St. Helena (Sfânta Elena in Romanian, Sankt Helena in German, Dunaszentilona in Hungarian) is the oldest existing Czech village in Banat. It was founded, together with the settlement of Elizabeta, in the first half of the 1820s by the first wave of colonists from the Czech lands heading to the Banat military frontier, the buffer zone of the Habsburg Monarchy against the Ottoman Empire. The first settlers came mainly from Central Bohemia. They brought with them not only their faith (Catholic and Protestant) but also their traditions, customs and farming methods. The original forestry workers later became members of a frontier regiment. After difficult beginnings, the village gradually grew, reaching its present size at the beginning of the 20th century. After the First World War, the Czech villages on the left bank of the Danube river were given to Romania by the Treaty of Trianon (1920).