The Carpathian Mountains have for centuries remained a fundamentally border region, split in many ways and, at the same time, subject to unifying metaphorical re-conceptualisations. The article has the goal of contributing the identification of the structural role of the imagined Carpathians in intra-regional and wider-scale exchange definition, and, consequently, their perception by internal and external actors. One therefore reviews the conditions nurturing the discourses of backwardness and progress as well as transition and in-between-ness of the Carpathian area. The article suggests to rely on the post-colonialist perspective to ground and to problematise the exploration of the discursive elements supporting liminality production and perpetuation. Being chiefly interested in the applied aspect of that scheme, the study looks at the liminality discourse as an example of frame-setting for international cooperation in the area.