At the end of December 2020, a study by the director of the Serbian Institute, Pero Lastić, was published in the magazine "Regio", under the title Serbian Orthodox Cemeteries, Graves and Tombstones in Hungary .
REGIO – Minority, Culture, Politics and Society is a quarterly scholarly journal, an organ of comparative regional, social and cultural research, represented by the study of national and minority issues. The main goal of the journal is to convey to Hungarian readers the lessons of contemporary international (social) theoretical debates and texts that are not yet available in Hungarian.
Study abstract:
Orthodox Serbs who immigrated from the Balkans have been living and buried in the territory of present-day Hungary since the 15th century. Their early cemeteries have not survived, and archaeological research of these cemeteries is not in the forefront of scientific interest. Only a few tombstones from Kovin (16th century) and Buda (17th century) refer to burial sites around former Serbian Orthodox churches. After the Great Migration of Serbs in 1690, Serbs in Hungary – thanks to the church privileges they received – established their own cemeteries in many cities and towns, which, with a few exceptions, were liquidated during the 20th century. However, more of these tombstones of cultural and artistic value were rescued from these cemeteries and placed in the gates of Serbian Orthodox churches and cemeteries. As the significant number of local Serb communities was greatly reduced due to emigration (1920-1931) and assimilation, most of the cemeteries opened in the late 19th and early 20th centuries have been destroyed or are highly endangered.
Graves, tombstones and tomb inscriptions registered during a survey conducted by the Serbian Institute in 65 settlements between 2011 and 2014, form an extensive electronic database that will soon be available on the Internet, and which could be the basis for a professionally established program for the protection of this significant heritage of Serbs in Hungary.
The complete study and published proceedings are available in Hungarian on the following page:
https://regio.tk.mta.hu/index.php/regio/article/view/329/_13
