Klappentext

This study examines the significance of the Byzantine Orthodox heritage for the national movement of the Serbs in the 18th and 19th centuries. Based on contemporary historiographical works, newspaper articles, correspondence and laws, the monograph is dedicated to the use of the offer of surviving structures of the Byzantine Empire and its Church by Serbian nation-builders: The focus of the study is on ecclesiastical and secular actors from the narrow stratum of the Serbian educated and functional elite, who accessed and dealt with the Byzantine legacy to stage and legitimise rule, to consolidate their own identity and to justify certain political strategies.