CISH 2026
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The Three Seas: Borderlands and Gateways

  • Date

    I. Wednesday, 26.08.2026, 14:00-15:30

    Thursday, 27.08.2026, 08:30-10:30

  • Location
    House 1 - T-1004
  • Theme
    J - Connections, Entanglements, and Universal Perspectives on History

Abstract

he Three Seas (the Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea) appears to be a very modern concept. The borderline inclusive concept is not however. Its roots can be traced backed to Louis I of Anjou, king of Hungary and Poland (1370-1382), or to Venice’s Hungaria, Polonia, Dacia et Crouatia (1490s-1530s), and, in more recent times, to Poland’s interwar Intermarium (1930s). The diversity encompassed between the said three seas placed/ places a rather significant question mark over the sustainability of the – otherwise resilient – concept(s). The Three Seas seems less of an actionable idea and more of a (generous) frame for thought. Plus, the seas in question were/ are used apparently more as borders than as gates for (arch) nation(s) of sailors. The session aims to investigate both real humans (and their actions) and means (and their abstract cartography). Such an inquiry must naturally include also “those” on the other side(s), i.e. shore(s), of the seas. The Three Seas were at least equally determined from “the outside” as they were from “the inside”. After all, the seas and lands under scrutiny were (also) a cross-road between the Ottonian realm, the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus’. The panel was conceived in partnership by the Comitetul Naţional al Istoricilor din România (Academia Română) [CNIR]/ National Committee of Historians from Romania of the Romanian Academy, the Komitet Nauk Historycznych (Polska Akademia Nauk) [KNH]/ Committee for Historical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Hrvatski acionalni odbor za povijesne znanosti [HNOPZ]/ Croatian National Committee of Historical Sciences for the CISH 2026 congress in Jerusalem. The present proposal represents a contracted version of the initial project, hence also the reduced number of participants (if approved, the number can be increased).

Convenor

  • Suzana Simon (Institute of Historical and Social Sciences, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb)

Panelists

  • Ágnes Maléth (University of Szeged, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences)
  • Beata Możejko   (University of Gdańsk)
  • Ioan-Aurel Pop (Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca / Romanian Academy Bucharest)
  • Nikolina Šimetin Šegvić (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Croatian Studies)
  • Alexandru Simon (Romanian Academy, Centre for Transylvanian Studies, Cluj-Napoca)
  • Suzana Simon (Institute of Historical and Social Sciences, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb)
  • Adam Zapała (Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow)

Papers

  • The Papacy and the Three Seas

    Ágnes Maléth

  • Commerce between the Three Seas

    Beata Możejko  

  • The Eastern Churches and the Three Seas

    Ioan-Aurel Pop

  • Urbanism(s) between the Three Seas

    Nikolina Šimetin Šegvić

  • Borders between the Three Seas

    Alexandru Simon

  • Nobility and Aristocracy between the Three Seas

    Suzana Simon

  • Propaganda(s) and Perception(s) between the Three Seas

    Adam Zapała