The conference will focus on issues related to the presence of the members of the d’Anjou house and heritage linked to it in the cultural landscape and cultural texts of Central and Eastern Europe – both in the past and today. Krakow and Zadar symbolically represent the northernmost and southernmost parts of their dominium.

This unified space under the Angevins is illustrated by the Chest of Saint Simeon in the Church of Saint Simeon in Zadar. There are a few images in this magnificent piece of art that attract attention. One of them shows the arrival of King Louis the Great from the D’Anjou house to Zadar. The other depicts his wife Elisabeth of Bosnia – the daughter of the ban of Bosnia (Stephen II of Bosnia from the house of Kotromanić,) and Elisabeth of Kuyavia (member of the Polish Piast dynasty).

The queen is accompanied by their three daughters, Catherine, Mary, and Hedwig. The latter will soon become the Queen of Poland, and with her marriage with the Grand Duke of Lithuania, the Jagiellonian dynasty will be established, which will give rise, in the course of two centuries, to many monarchs not just of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth but also the Kingdom of Bohemia and Kingdom of Hungary (and hence the Kingdom of Croatia). This detail on the chest in Zadar is a point of departure for a discussion on one of the following topics:

• political aspects of the Angevins in Central Europe (dynastic bonds, state building policies, cultural expression in various texts);
• heritage of Central European Culture under the members of the D’Anjou dynasty (Central-European cultural trends intertwining with the Mediterranean influence; artefacts, literature);  
• political and cultural elite of the time of the Angevins and their heirs – the Jagiellons (‘national’ and ‘international’ networks and ties, policies, overlapping between Poland, Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia/Dalmatia); 
• heritage of the Angevins today (memory codified in historiography, language, literature, arts, and urban space).

More information about the conference, including its schedule, programme and registration will be available on the website: https://ifs.filg.uj.edu.pl/conference-anjou.

This conference is funded by the program Excellence Initiative – Research University at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.