Sarata was the administrative center of the Sarata Colonists’ District of Akkerman Uyezd in the Bessarabian Governorate (1836–1871). It was part of Romania from 1918 to 1940 and of the USSR from 1940 to 1991. Today, the town lies within Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District, Odesa Region.
Sarata was founded in 1822 by the religious figure Ignaz Lindl, who, guided by his own understanding of Christian teaching, dreamed of creating a just society. Together with Catholics from Bavaria and Lutherans from the Kingdom of Württemberg, he decided to establish the settlement as a socio-religious community. The settlers were granted land in Bessarabia along the Sarata River.
The layout of the settlement was designed by the watchmaker Alois Schertzinger: it was planned in the form of a square “clock face,” with perpendicular intersecting streets. Due to poor water quality and unfavorable soil conditions, the colonists spent many years gaining experience in order to determine the most productive crops. The most profitable branches of the economy were cattle and horse breeding. One of the principal sources of income was winemaking.
Metallurgical production and the manufacture of agricultural machinery were established in Sarata. A cloth factory was also built.
In 1844, the central college (Wernerschule) was opened to train rural schoolteachers. In 1865, the Alexander Asylum was founded for the sick and the elderly.
From March 1918 to September 1940, Sarata formed part of Greater Romania. Under the Soviet–German agreement of 27 June 1940, Bessarabia was annexed by the USSR. In September 1940, on the basis of a German–Soviet agreement, the Germans of Bessarabia were granted the right to resettle in Germany. The majority of Sarata’s residents made use of this right.
Today, Sarata is the administrative center of its district in Odesa Region. Colonists’ houses, cellars, an old well with a traditional sweep (shadoof), and the ruins of the central college have been preserved. With the assistance and financial support of the Bessarabian German homeland association (Germany), the Lutheran church has been restored. In the 1990s, the museum founded in 1922 reopened. A monument to Pastor I. Lindl has been erected. At the cemetery, a memorial incorporating preserved gravestones from the former German burial ground has been created.
