The Banat has always been hidden on the fringes, in the moisture-wrapped corner of the map of Dacia, the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg monarchy and finally Austro-Hungary, which treated the region as a buffer zone separating two worlds. Colonised with vigour, however, it became a new home for Europeans lured by the promise of prosperity – from Barcelona to the Vistula. Did those who eventually stayed create a multicultural atmosphere, or merely closed enclaves, scattered chaotically across the map?
Is the Banat’s multi-ethnicity a marketing slogan or a worldwide phenomenon? What is the region today, whose name is even a Habsburg concept, and how does it cherish its centuries-old heritage?
In the pages of the 57th issue of Herito magazine, Adriana Babeţi, Kazimierz Jurczak, János Szekernyés and Daniel Warmuz look at the history and multiculturalism of the Banat.
Tomasz Kwoka, Katarzyna Marcol and Kamila Woźniak visit Banat’s minorities, while Bogdan Achimescu, Olga Bartosiewicz-Nikolaev, Vlad Alexandru Gaivoronschi, Ileana Pintilie, Wojciech Stanisławski and Sorin D. Vintilă immerse themselves in Banat’s architecture, literature and art.
Content
Editorial
Adriana Babeţi – The Banat: an Eldorado Between Frontiers
Kazimierz Jurczak – Banat and Timișoara. The History of a Myth
József Makkay talks to János Szekernyés. From Multiculturalism to Monolingualism
Tomasz Kwoka – East of the Tisza. About the Vojvodina Part of Banat
Katarzyna Marcol – “There’s but a puckle o’ us left, we’re jist dwindlin’ away”. People from Wisła in Serbian Banat
Kamila Woźniak – All That Remains is What is Important. Stories from the Czech Banat
Wojciech Stanisławski – A Streak of Pink. The Baroque of the Banat Serbs
Sorin D. Vintilă – Baroque Literature on the Margins
Olga Bartosiewicz‑Nikolaev – “In the Beginning was the Conversation”. Aktionsgruppe Banat, or Literature in Action
Ileana Pintilie – Structure, Function, Environment. Artistic Paradigms of 111 and Sigma Groups
Bogdan Achimescu – The Painting and Theatre of Zofia Krzyżanowska
Vlad Alexandru Gaivoronschi – Hans Fackelmann, Spearhead of Timişoara Architecture
István Kovács – The Last Walk With a Friend. Csaba G. Kiss (1945–2025)