Bishop of Vršac

Eparchy of Banat Банатска епархија Banatska eparhija
Coat of Arms of Eparchy of Banat
Location
Territory	Serbian Banat
Headquarters	Vršac, Serbia
Information
Denomination	Eastern Orthodox
Sui iuris church	Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarchate of Peć (Serbia)
Established	16th century
Language	Church Slavonic Serbian
Current leadership
Bishop	Nikanor Bogunović
Map

The Eparchy of Banat (Serbian: Банатска епархија or Banatska eparhija) is an ecclesiastical territory or eparchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Banat region, Serbia. It is mostly situated in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, while the eparchy also include a small south-western part of Banat that belongs to the City of Belgrade as well as village of Ostrovo that belongs to the city of Požarevac. The seat of the eparchy is in Vršac.

Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Vršac was one of several eparchies created on the territory of Banat during the 16th century under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć. By the time of the accession of Serbian patriarch Makarije I (1557), much of the Banat region was already conquered by the Turks who took over Temeswar in 1552. Region was organized as a Turkish eyalet (province) named the Eyalet of Temeşvar.

During Turkish rule in the 16th and 17th centuries Banat was mainly populated by Serbs (also called Rascians) in the west and Vlachs (Romanians) in the east. In some historical sources it was referred to as Rascia and in others as Wallachia. Both Serbs and Romanians in Banat were Orthodox Christians. In some parts of Banat, Serbs were so numerous that the entire region was sometimes called "Rascia" ("the land of the Serbs", 1577).