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157 (I): The foundations of national identities in Europe: battlefields, war memorials and nation-building. The adaptation of war memory to changing political regimes (I)
Time:
Monday, 08/Sept/2025:
2:00pm - 3:30pm
Session Chair: Dr. Péter Reményi Session Chair: Prof. Norbert Pap
Session Abstract
The armed conflicts on the eastern and southern peripheries of Europe have had a fundamental impact on European collaboration, joint efforts and, through it, on local, national and European identity. There are several well known battles that have a nation-building effect and play a crucial role in the formation of these identities, such as the Battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389 (Serbia), the Battle of Mohács in 1526 (Hungary), the Battle of Udbina in 1493 (Croatia), the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 (Poland) or the Battle of White Mountain in 1620 (Czechia), as well as the sieges of Vienna in 1683 (Austria) or Constantinople in 1453 (Türkiye) among others. From the 19th century onwards, these battlefields and sites have become an important feature of the commemorative landscape through (often competing) memorialization of different nation-states, ethnic groups, religious or other communities etc. It is particularly interesting to examine the way in which the different political groups relate to these battles and the physical imprint they left on the commemorative landscape.
The organizers are waiting for papers on battles, battlefields and memorial landscapes with significant identity-shaping effect on a local, national or European scale from a theoretical approach as well as case studies of individual sites.
Presentations
The Battle of Mohács, 1526 – a memorial landscape
Norbert Pap, Máté Kitanics, Péter Gyenizse
University of Pécs (Hungary), Hungary
The Battle of Mohács in 1526 is an outstanding important event in the history of Hungary and Central Europe. Suleiman the Magnificent defeated the Hungarian and allied armies near the small Hungarian town, Mohács. The result was the decline of the middle power of medieval Europe, the Kingdom of Hungary. Later (even today) it seemed that this was the end of the golden age for Hungary. The memory of the battle has played an important role in political debates for centuries. The research described in this presentation will show how far historical reality and memory have drifted apart. A landscape of memory has emerged here, where the descendants of the former participants - Hungarians, Turks, Poles etc - have created their own memorials. Aligning scientific fact and memory is a major challenge in managing the heritage of Mohács. The 500th anniversary is approaching: the need to create a new, modern image of Mohács and to reflect on the biases of the politics of memory is becoming increasingly urgent.
1Istanbul University (Türkiye); 2Bosphoros University (Türkiye); 3University of Pécs (Hungary), Hungary
The Battle of Varna was fought on 10 November 1444. In the battle, the Ottoman forces, led by Murad II. defeated the Christian forces of central and south-eastern Europe, which included Hungarians, Poles, Czechs, Germans, Croats and Romanians, along with Bulgarian troops. The European troops were led by Władysław III Warneńczyk, King of Hungary and Poland, and John Hunyadi. The battle was disastrous. Although both sides suffered heavy losses, European losses were greater and the king fell. The main consequence was that the Balkans were opened up to further Ottoman conquest and the capture of Constantinople (1453). From Bulgaria to Poland, the memory of the battle has been preserved and has become a point of reflection for unity in Central Europe. The study examines the battlefield's geo-cultural content, how posterity has used the battlefield and the memory of the battle for political purposes.
Memory of the Battle of Krbava Field
Dénes Sokcsevits1, Pál Fodor1, Máté Kitanics2
1HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities; 2University of Pécs
Hungarians and Croats fought several battles against the expanding Ottoman Empire. As the Battle of Mohács in 1526 has a central role in the Hungarian memory, the Battle of Krbava Field on 9 September 1493 plays a similar role in Croatian national memory. The memory of the battle was imprinted on the mind of contemporaries, appeared in the 16th and 17th century Christian sources, as well as in the 19th and 20th century Hungarian and Croatian historiography. However, while the memory of the Battle of Mohács is uninterrupted in the Hungarian public consciousness, the memory of the Battle of Krbava Field was partially relegated to the background in Yugoslavia’s interwar period and completely forgotten during the Yugoslav socialist regime, only to be revived after Croatia regained its independence. Our presentation will survey Christian and Ottoman sources from the 15th and 17th centuries that describe the battle. We will present the memory of the battle in Croatian folk literature, its place in Croatian historical science and in the 19th–21st century memory culture, including how the contemporary Croatian state and Church have implemented their concept of memory on and around the battlefield. Finally, we will reflect on whether the Battle of Krbava Field can be called the Croatian Mohács or Croatian Kosovo, as it is so often done.
The memory of the Habsburg–Ottoman wars through the place names of Hungarian Baranya and Croatian Baranja region
Róbert Szabó
Doctoral School of Earth Sciences, Pécs, Hungary
In this study, I have attempted to shed light on the toponymy of the Hungarian and Croatian parts of the Baranya region from the point of view of memory politics and geography, using the example of the Ottoman–Habsburg wars (1683–1689). One of the most important battles took place here, near the Harsány Hill (1687) where the united Habsburg forces led by Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) won a brilliant victory over the Ottoman troops led by Sarı Süleyman Pasha (1627–1687).
A larger group of toponyms and hydronyms commemorating the wars of reconquest are often associated with the cult of Virgin Mary (Mariahilf). This cult formed the ideological basis of the Habsburg party fighting against the Ottomans’ Islamic faith. Apart from this, several names of places reflect the memories of the wars. Many of them refer to natural objects such as hills, valleys, rivers and swamps, while others allude to certain types of buildings and street names. Due to turbulent political changes of the last three hundred years many of these toponyms do not exist anymore.
The collected data from different memorial sites were classified and then mapped using QGIS software.
The memory of the Ottoman–Habsburg wars of the late 17th century was affected by numerous political influences. The critical geopolitical analysis can help us understand the dynamics of the local cultural and political life.
