Project information
The First Histories of Architecture and the Creation of National Heritage in South- Eastern Europe (1860-1930). A Transnational Approach

The project proposes a novel, comparative and entangled analysis of the histories of
architecture of the South-Eastern European states (Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria) and
neighbouring regions or countries in South-Eastern parts of the Habsburg Empire (Bukovina,
Hungary) from the mid-19th century to the interwar period. The project will investigate the
overlapping and competing ideas about the historical monuments and the cultural identity of
these regions that are marked by a common history and a shared heritage but also by
individual national ideologies developed since the 19th century. So far, most studies have
analysed only single nation-states perpetuating the idea that their history was largely unique.
Instead, this project will emphasize collaborations, exchange of knowledge, transnational
scholarly networks and events through which local and foreign-based artists and scholars
created works that defined national architectural monuments and cultural identities of the
states and regions of South-Eastern Europe. It will therefore argue that even if each country
or region claimed its architectural heritage to be unique, in practice these were the result of
transnational network of artists, collaborative works, histories written often by foreign
scholars or influenced by foreign events. The project will thus lead to a different
understanding of historical monuments and of the ways modern identities were formed, with
a much more careful appreciation for the significance of transnational networks and
collaborations and less for individual and often exclusionary national ideologies.