Banat in the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages in the Banat (a historical region in Central Europe which is now divided among Romania, Serbia and Hungary) started around 900.^[1] Around that time, Duke Glad ruled Banat, according to the Gesta Hungarorum (a chronicle of debated reliability). Archaeological finds and 10th-century sources evidence that Magyars (or Hungarians) settled in the lowlands in the early 10th century, but the survival of Avar, Slav and Bulgar communities can also be documented. A local chieftain, Ajtony, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy around 1000, but his attempts to control the delivery of salt on the Mureș River brought him into conflict with Stephen I of Hungary. Ajtony died fighting against the royal army in the first decades of the 11th century. His realm was transformed into a county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Counties (which were established around royal fortresses) were the most prominent units of royal administration.

Featuring items of the "Bijelo Brdo culture" (the dominant archaeological culture of the Carpathian Basin between around 950 and 1090) can be detected in the lowlands from around 975. Artefacts from the Byzantine Empire or imitating Byzantine objects were found along the Danube, and in the Banat Mountains. Pagan burial rites disappeared by the end of the 11th century, evidencing the local inhabitants' conversion to Christianity. Gerard, the first Bishop of Csanád (now Cenad in Romania), played a preeminent role in the process, according to hagiographic works written centuries later. More than a dozen monasteries (including at least three Orthodox monasteries) were established in the region before the mid-13th century.

The Mongol invasion of Hungary brought severe destruction in 1241–42, causing the disappearance of dozens of villages. After the withdrawal of the Mongols, new fortresses, made of stone, were built. Cumans settled in the lowlands around 1246. Their traditional nomadic way of life gave rise to conflicts with their neighbors for decades. Charles I of Hungary held his royal residence in Timișoara between 1315 and 1323. Colonization contributed to the development of the noblemen's estates in the 14th century. The presence of Vlachs (or Romanians) in the Banat Mountains can be documented from the same century. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkan Peninsula forced thousands of Bulgarians and Serbs to leave their homelands and settle in Banat. Louis I of Hungary made several attempts to convert his Orthodox subjects into Roman Catholicism in Banat in the 1360s. The region became an important frontier zone after the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. The ispáns (or heads) of Temes County were tasked with the defence of the frontier, which enabled them to unite most counties of Banat under their rule and to administer all royal fortresses in the region.

^ Oța 2014, p. 18.

[FOOTNOTEOța201418-1] Oța 2014, p. 18.

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