Byzantium Evolutionized: Architectural History and National Identity in Turn-of-the-Century Serbia

Abstract

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, European nations have been perennially historicized through a variety of disciplinary regimes — from political and cultural history, to archeology and architectural history. Regardless of the complexity and diversity of changeable political systems and phases of development of particular European nationalisms, national historiographies have had a major role in distinguishing particular national identities according to their distinct historical background and cultural traditions. This phenomenon was based on the controversial and often dubious process of selection and invention of a suitable ‘national’ past, which consequently provided a framework for historicization of different national groups — both synchronically and diachronically. As a result, architectural historiographies throughout Europe have produced a complex system of similarities and dissimilarities between different nations, reinforcing well-established and operational cultural, political, and religious dichotomies that entirely dominate the perception of European nations and national identities today.