Maria Baramova

Borders and border regions have attracted intensified scholarly interest, shaped by historiographical developments and 20th-century conflicts. This project examines how the European–Ottoman frontier in the early modern Balkans was perceived, visualized, and staged. Concentrating on the Habsburg–Ottoman border that reconfigured Southeastern Europe, Maria Baramova examines how cartography, print media, and public reception signaled dominance, obscured defeats, or projected dynastic and expansionist ambitions. Her study examines how such visualizations functioned within the political and diplomatic exchange between Vienna and Constantinople, and how they served broadly as instruments of communication to both domestic and international audiences and elites. Notably, after the 1730s, neither empire was able to fully impose control in the region, rendering symbolic representations of the border crucial for legitimizing claims and sustaining influence. In that context, border imagery became a central instrument of power-political symbolism, shaping public perception and legitimizing claims, despite limited material control.