Herito, No. 57: Banat

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.