Uzdin is a village located in the Kovačica municipality, in the South Banat District (Serbia).
The emergence of the new settlement Uzdina is closely linked to the establishment of the military landscape, which defended Banat, keeping the border of the Danube, and which was the dam for the further surge of the Turks. In 1724, the Austrian marshal Francesco, alongside the Serbs, colonized the Romanians, who were fleeing from the Turkish yoke, descended through the Transylvanian alps into the fertile Banat plain. The colonized Romanian population was first inhabited at the site of today’s (then the desert) Padina around 1767. The transition to the present location of the village of Uzdina followed the unfavorable living conditions (water shortage) in 1776.
Uzdin is located north of Kovačica, at a distance of 10 km. This village belongs to the Potamisk settlements and only 5 km from Tamiš river. Coordinates:
DMS 45° 12′ 10″ N, 20° 37′ 7″ E
Decimal 45.202778, 20.618611
The Church of St George in Uzdin is one of the most magnificent Parishes of the Romanian Orthodox Churches in Vojvodina. It was built and consecrated in 1801. The iconostasis in this temple was being painted from 1833 to 1836 by the famous painter Konstantin Danilo.
The naïve painter Anujka Maran painted the wooden church banners – “LITIJA”(Processions) in oil painting technique on canvas in 1940 and 1950. Therefore, the naïve art was acknowledged by the side of the Roman Orthodox Church and it is officially used during divine services.
Naive painting in Uzdin
The beginnings of naive painting in Uzdin date back in 1961, when a group of women around Anujka Maran decided to started to transmit the old patterns from hand-woven carpets and aprons onto paper, and later on canvas. Their main characteristic was a complete preoccupation with motives of Romanian folklore, the way they kept it in their memories and the way they could see it on the streets, in the fields, by the yarns, on celebrations, in the village.
Besides an artistic value, the paintings of these women from Uzdin are important for another reason. They are an important help to the sociologists, ethnologists, folklorists and all those who are interested in reconstruction of our cultural phenomenons and achievements.
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