Prolegomena to a Study of the Religious and Cultural Networks Linking the Romanian Communities of Medieval Transylvania

Abstract : A critical survey of the religious medieval monuments and art of the western Carpathian mountains, Lower Mureş Valley, and the Hațeg region witnesses to the history of Romanian communities in what was once part of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. As such, the interpretation of this peripheral artistic corpus remains a never-ending matter of dispute among the religious and cultural complexities of Transylvanian society. This paper asserts that while Transylvania lies outside the usual geographical boundaries of the Balkans, medieval Transylvanian Romanians largely followed cultural norms from south of the Danube, and thus belong within the Balkan milieu.