Plenary Session: Byzantium in Central Europe

The “Byzantine idea” is a projection of themes and concerns of modern historiography over a millennium of Eastern Mediterranean history. This study examines the formation, circulation, and transformation of several “ideas of Byzantium.” For Central Europe (Mitteleuropa) the projection is deeply involved in competing narratives of legacy and inheritance. Rather than treating Byzantium as a…

While the area known today as Central Europe did not lie directly within the Byzantine political sphere, neither was it outside the empire’s interest. Between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, Byzantine emperors gradually forged cultural, political and dynastic ties to the region mainly through the activities of missionaries and elite brides. Their stories bear witness…

In the Later Middle Ages, political entanglements between the Crowns of Poland, Bohemia, Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire gave new coherence to Central Europe as a macroregion. At the same time, traditional Byzantine relations towards the West (such as the debated Zweikaiserproblem) had lost much of their relevance due to profound structural transformation in…

Byzantium’s impact in Central Europe was both direct and mediated through the Balkan Peninsula and the Carpathian Mountains for much of the Middle Ages. In these regions further east, Byzantium shaped aspects of culture, art, and ideology, especially between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. This essay addresses how Byzantine models were accessed and adapted locally…