Visegrád 1335 (Budapest, 2009)
Preface by Kristóf Forrai
Visegrad Prospects The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, also known as the Visegrad Group countries, have long shared common ground in history, culture, religion, and economics. Over the course of the centuries this shared past has been marked by a striving for unity as well as frequent frictions, peaceful times and military conflicts. The last decade of the 20th century provided venue for a new kind of cooperation, allowing these nations to catch up with economically more developed European countries. This decade also offered the unprecedented opportunity for cooperation at every level. The partnership that has developed among these nations is the backbone of the regions economic competitiveness in the long term. It is within the framework of such partnership that we may face up to problems yet to be resolved, like environmental pollution, diminishing energy supplies, the development of educational and research institutions, the effects of climate change on our region, and our transformation into a migration hub - to name only a few of the challenges we have yet to meet. In an effort to seize this formidable opportunity, the Visegrad Group, CEFTA and the International Visegrad Fund were formed to facilitate the political, economic and civil cooperation of the four countries. Their membership in NATO and the EU, the general increase in the exchange of goods and business relations, as well as the more than 2,000 projects that have been carried out by these countries’ civil organizations are only a few of the many achievements of the Visegrad region. As a result, over the course of the past two decades, the Visegrad Group has become a trademark of success. However, little is widely known of the meeting of the three kings in 1335, which marked the closure of a lengthy and complex process of diplomatic efforts - an event that Visegrad cooperation commemorates with its very name. As the first cooperative venture of medievalists working in the Visegrad countries, this book fills a void in historical scholarship in that it contains documents related to the royal meeting of 1335 in the original Latin, translated into the languages of the respective countries, as well as into English. We trust that Kristóf Forrai ss* 7
