The event in Sambotel was opened by PAIN chair and founder Robert Hajszan, who expressed his gratitude to the numerous members and associates of the institute whose work over the past twenty-five years has seen this culture association create links across the whole of the Pannonian region.
The Pannonian Institute (PAIN), based in the Austrian town of Güttenbach (Pinkovac), celebrated its twenty-fifth year at the Martineum in Hungary’s university town of Szombathely (Sambotel) on the 8th of September. The event was opened by PAIN chair and founder Robert Hajszan PhD, who expressed his gratitude to the numerous members and associates of the institute whose work over the past twenty-five years has seen this culture association create links across the whole of the Pannonian region.
Sanja Benković Marković presented the 2018 Pannonian Almanac, speaking of the wealth of content in its 544 pages, including articles in the Croatian, German, Hungarian and Slovenian languages. It is through this multilingual publication that PAIN has found affirmation, with almost thirty thousand pages of material published to date covering topics from the culture and societal life of the Croatian people living in the Pannonian region. The almanac is edited by Hajszan, a historian, philologist and a native of Güttenbach (Pinkovac) in Austria’s Burgenland (Gradišće) region, whose efforts in developing the institute’s publication activity are both worthy and unfaltering—besides the Pannonian Almanac it has, since 1994, also published the Pannonian Paper and books by authors from the broader Gradišće region and those living in other regions.
Among the many dignitaries on hand from universities and other institutions in Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia and Austria, congratulations were forthcoming from PAIN associates and long time colleagues, including Katarina Čeliković of the Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians. She underlined the great sacrifices made and the energy invested by Hajzan in covering the large cultural sphere in which Croatian communities outside of Croatia proper live and his work in weaving a Pannonian network of collaborators. In his appearances in Subotica and in other places in Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czechia and Austria, the PAIN chairman has informed the broader research community of the life of the Croatian communities across the broader Gradišće region, promoting the qualities of co-existence and understanding among Central European nations that share a common cultural heritage in the Pannonian sphere.
On hand to congratulate PAIN on its twenty-five years of work were Gerhard Baugartner, Mirko Ćurić, Károly Gadányi, Željko Holjevac, Andrej Hozjan, Tomica Jelić, Leo Radaković, Marjan Šiftar and Sanja Vulić. The event programme closed with a short talk by PAIN vice-chair Franjo Ostović.
The programme was graced by an excellent performance by Josip Molnar of Đakovo on guitar and Martina Čeliković of Subotica singing traditional Bunjevo region melodies.
Confident that our excellent and fruitful collaboration will continue in the future the Institute for the Culture of Vojvodina Croatians extends its sincere congratulations to Robert Hajszan PhD, the founder of the Pannonian Institute, a worthy promoter of the culture of the Croat communities of the Gradišće and neighbouring regions.
(ZKVH)