scholarly journals Problems in the study of the medieval heritage in the Lim valley

Starinar ◽  
2005 ◽  
pp. 181-195
Author(s):  
Marko Popovic

Discussing the results of archaeological investigation at two important medieval sites - remains of the monastery of St George at Mazici near Priboj and of the church at Drenova near Prijepolje - the author puts forward his critical observations that make significant revisions to the conclusions suggested by excavators. The remains of a monastery at Mazici have long ago been identified with the monastery of St George in the zupa (district) of Dabar known from early 13th-century records. In the 1310s a monastery of St George is referred to in association with the toponym of Orahovica. After a long gap, the monastery is referred to again several times in the 1600s until its final destruction in 1743, as St George?s at Orahovica or simply Mazic(i). The report following systematic archaeological excavations suggests the unacceptable and unfounded conclusion, with dating and interpretation that the monastery church was built in the 13th century, received additions in the 14th, and was renovated in the 16th-17th centuries when there was a hospital attached to it. Careful analysis of the structural remains and the site?s stratigraphy clearly shows that the monastery was built on the site of a medieval cemetery of a 14th-15th-century date, which means that the church and its buildings cannot be older than the 16th century. The author also argues against the assumed presence of a monastic hospital, the assumption being based upon metal artifacts misinterpreted as "medical instruments" (parchment edge trimmer, compasses, fork!!!). The author?s inference is that the ruins at Mazici are not the remains of the monastery of St George, which should be searched for elsewhere, but possibly the legacy of a 14th-century monastic establishment which was moved there from an as yet unknown location most likely about the middle of the 16th century. The site at Drenova, with remains of a church destroyed by land slide, has been known since the late 19th century when a stone block was found there bearing the opening part of an inscription: "+ Te Criste auctore pontifex...", long believed to date from the 9th-10th century. Following the excavations, but based on this dating the church remains were interpreted as pre- Romanesque, and the interpretation entailed some major historical conclusions. From a more recent and careful analysis, the inscription has been correctly dated to the 6th century. With this dating as his starting-point, the author examines the fieldwork results and suggests that the block is an early-Byzantine spolium probably from the late-antique site of Kolovrat near Prijepolje, reused in the medieval period as a tombstone in the churchyard, where such examples are not lonely. It follows that the inscribed block is not directly relatable to the church remains and that it cannot be used as dating evidence. On the other hand, the church remains show features of the Romanesque-Gothic style of architecture typical of the Pomorje, the Serbian Adriatic coast. According to close analogies found for some elements of its stone decoration, the date of the church could not precede the middle of the 13th century. The question remains open as to who had the church built and what its original function was, that is whether a monastic community center round it. Its founder may be sought for among members of the ruling Nemanjic house, but a church dignitary cannot be ruled out. Anumber of complex issues raised by this site are yet to be resolved, but the study should be relieved of earlier misconceptions. Fresh information about this ruined medieval church should be provided by revision excavations in the future.

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 464
Author(s):  
Marie Clausén

My paper analyses the 15th-century seven-sacraments font at the medieval church of St Peter and St Paul at Salle in Norfolk (England). The church guides and gazetteers that describe the font, and the church in which it is situated, owe both their style and content to Art History, focusing as they do on their material and aesthetic dimensions. The guides also tend towards isolating the various elements of the font, and these in turn from the rest of the architectural elements, fittings and furniture of the church, as if they could be meaningfully experienced or interpreted as discrete entities, in isolation from one another. While none of the font descriptions can be faulted for being inaccurate, they can, as a result of these tendencies, be held insufficient, and not quite to the purpose. My analysis of the font, by means of Heidegger’s concept of Dwelling, does not separate the font either from the rest of the church, nor from other fonts, but acknowledges that it comes to be, and be seen as, what it is only when considered as standing in ‘myriad referential relations’ to other things, as well as to ourselves. This perspective has enabled me to draw out what it is about the font at Salle that can be experienced as not merely beautiful or interesting, but also as meaningful to those—believers and non-believers alike—who encounter it. By reconsidering the proper mode of perceiving and engaging with the font, we may spare it from being commodified, from becoming a unit in the standing reserve of cultural heritage, and in so doing, we, too, may be momentarily freed from our false identities as units of production and agents of consumption. The medieval fonts and churches of Norfolk are, I argue, not valuable as a result of their putative antiquarian qualities, but invaluable in their extending to us a possibility of dwelling—as mortals—on the earth—under the sky—before the divinities.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Marek Krąpiec ◽  
Sławomir Moździoch ◽  
Ewa Moździoch

ABSTRACT Excavations of the remains of the medieval church of Santa Maria di Campogrosso (Sicily) were conducted by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences as part of scientific cooperation with Soprintendenza per i Beni Culturali ed Ambientali di Palermo. Based on the records of post-medieval historians, the construction of the church was placed in the second half of the 11th century, which contradicts the findings of architectural historians, who dated the building to the 13th-century and even later. As a result of archaeological excavations carried out in 2015–2018, it was possible to locate unknown fragments of the church’s structure and the remains of the cemetery adjacent to it. The 14C dating carried out for samples obtained from the walls of the existing building as well as from bone remains from the churchyard in combination with stratigraphic information from archaeological trenches and the chronology of coins indicates a high probability of the church construction in the second half of the 12th century and confirms the end of the monastery complex existence at the end of the 13th century.


2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-114
Author(s):  
Krisztina Fehér ◽  
Balázs Halmos

Since the 19th century, the church of Zsámbék was continuously a focus of scholars' interest. The present paper intends to research the church ruins with a new aspect. Using an accurate terrestrial laser scan survey, the geometry of the plan is analysed in order to find proportions among the dimensions. The main goal of the study is to gather information about the design logic of the first masters of the 13th-century Premonstratensian abbey. In addition, our goal was to detect contributions to the 13th-century construction history of the church, that cannot be found in archives of graphic sources. The latest archaeological excavation achieved excellent results concerning several crucial historical points; however, the periodization of the church is still not entirely clarified. From the 19th century, different scholars have proposed various hypotheses about this topic, without consensus.


2020 ◽  
Vol 244 ◽  
pp. 01007
Author(s):  
Maryse Casanova ◽  
Jean-Louis Brousse

From the 10th to the 15th centuries, the counts of Comminges developed their important domain and resisted the ambitions of their powerful neighbors. Alliances, treaties, marriages, wars, everything has been good to preserve their goods. These counts played happily with their personalities, their strengths, their weaknesses, their malice. They supported the economic and social development. The population gradually migrated from the mountains to the plain, first with the help of the Church and the creation of the “sauvetés”. Then the liberality of the counts allowed the construction of numerous “bastides” in the 13th century. The county families provided the majority of the Commingeois bishops and reinforced the importance of the Secular Church. By their permanent support to the Regular Church, they favored the establishment of large monastic and templar domains, the development of as much farming land. The progressive close up with the raimondine city of Toulouse, placed the County under his protection after the crusade by the Albigensians in 1218. The war against the English, the devastations of the Black prince in 1355 opened the last page of this story, accompanied by calamities that left in 1453 a bloodless Comminges in the hands of the King of France.


Starinar ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 161-171
Author(s):  
Dejan Radicevic ◽  
Ana Cicovic

The medieval settlement on the Rudnik Mountain was established, most probably, in the final decades of the 13th century. Soon it evolved into one of the best known mining and commercial centres in the Serbian state and reached its peak during the 14th and in the first half of the 15th century. The importance of Rudnik in the medieval period is confirmed by numerous material traces in the field. The most important discoveries in the course of archaeological investigations carried out since 2009 have been encountered in the area called Drenje, not far from the centre of the town of Rudnik (figs. 1, 2).Three churches (two Orthodox and one Roman Catholic), as well as many profane structures dated to the time of a thriving medieval Rudnik have so far been discovered. It indicates that in that area are the remains of the main settlement and the medieval market place of Rudnik, known from written sources. Among other structures at the site of Drenje, in the garden of S. Markovi}, the remains of rather a large building consisting, according to present data, of at least two rooms, have been investigated during the past three years (fig. 3). Important for dating the structure is a coin of the Hungarian king Sigismund of Luxembourg (1387-1437), discovered on the floor. Traces of an earlier phase of life were encountered under the structure (fig. 5). Coins have been found in two earlier pits. In the soil inside pit 11 a coin of the Hungarian king Charles Robert (1308-1342) was found, while in the top level of pit 2 a coin attributed to Prince Lazar (around 1370-1389) was found. Also from pit 2 came a, so far, unique archaeological find in our territory. It has been explained as a seal-die used for producing seals (fig, 7, 8). The representation in the central field and the contents of the inscription bear witness to the fact that the seal-die belonged to Prince Lazar. A helmet with bull horns engraved on the front side is understood to be the coat of arms of Prince Lazar, also used by his successors. The central field is surrounded by two concentric circles and between them is a circular inscription (fig. 9): + SI ? HARB GDNA KNEZA LAZARA SVE SRBSKE ZEMLE Translation of the inscription: + this is the grace of Lord Prince Lazar of the whole Serbian lands A seal stamped using the seal-die from Rudnik has not yet been found. The content of the inscription on the Rudnik sealdie is also quite unusual and unique. The word har? is translated to mean grace, a word that has not been recorded on any other stamp to date. On the other hand, the word grace has a distinct meaning in Serbian charters, denoting the legal activity of specific contents by which the ruler awarded nobles, the Church, market-towns, etc. The ruler?s grace as a legal act of distinct content must have been apparent and public and, as evidence of this grace, there would have been a distinct document. The very word grace is used in the documents as the name for a legal public document by which rulers ?created grace?, ?made grace? or allowed something by their grace. Taking this into account, it could be concluded that any seal stamped with the Rudnik sealdie as a means of notarisation of the document confirmed that the document represented the ruler?s grace in the sense of a valid legal public document. Considering the shape and size of the seal-die, it could be ascribed to the seal-die group for which it is characteristic that the seal was obtained not by impressing the seal-die in wax but by pressing the wax onto the seal-die, disregarding whether it was an applied or hanging seal. Supporting this assumption is the existence of small notches in the bottom corners of the Rudnik seal-die that were most probably used for connecting to the top part, making possible a better stamping of the seal, possibly even allowing the seal to have representations on both sides. The seal-die is dated from the time of Lazar?s rule over Rudnik, between 1373 and 1389. Mentioned in the inscription is the rule of Prince Lazar over all Serbian lands, suggesting that the date of the seal-die could be fixed in the final decade of Lazar?s life. It was most probably buried in 1390, during the time of King Sigismund?s attack on Serbia. One of the most important theatres of war in that campaign was the Rudnik region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 7104
Author(s):  
M. Araceli Calvo-Serrano ◽  
Isabel L. Castillejo-González ◽  
Francisco Montes-Tubío ◽  
Pilar Mercader-Moyano

Is it possible to carry out eco-sustainable rehabilitations on specially protected buildings? This is the main question and starting point for this research. We will use the tower of the Church of “Santiago Apóstol” in Montilla as a case study; with its most remote antecedents in the 15th century, it is an emblematic building of one of the most important cities in the Cordovan countryside and is listed as an Asset of Cultural Interest (Bien de Interés Cultural or BIC) as of 2001. The application of eco-efficiency criteria in the rehabilitation of this type of building might stimulate the reactivation of the construction sector in the rural area, positively impacting the promotion of a circular economy. To this end, a general methodology has been established for carrying out eco-sustainable renovations on this type of building, which defines indicators for evaluating the eco-sustainability of such interventions. This methodology is applied to the case study of this important building in Montilla to ensure that a feasible intervention has been proposed, aligned with three basic pillars of sustainability that considers its environmental, economic, and social impact.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatjana Tkalčec

Archaeological excavations have been carried out over a series of years in the northwestern-most part of the Hrvatsko zagorje region, at Hum na Sutli, at a castle whose medieval name was Vrbovec. Burg was mentioned in rare historical sources in the period from the second half of the 13th century to the second half of the 15th century. The excavations have resulted in data about its earlier beginnings, as well as its lengthier continuation, in fact a subsequent utilization if the medieval position in the early modern period, i.e. in the 16th century. The remains of a wooden structure, probably a tower destroyed by fire, were found at the site, built on the ruins of the medieval castle (Fig. 1). On the basis of the width of the foundation pit for this wooden structure, it can be concluded that this was a building constructed of massive wooden beams or the structure had several levels. The remains of a demolished tile stove were also found. The stove was covered with three types of tiles – tiles with a solid front decorative panel depicting a hunting scene (Fig. 2, Pl. 1/1), tiles with a perforated front panel decorated with architectural motifs (Fig. 3, Pl. 1/2), and simple bowl-shaped ties with a square opening (Fig. 4, Pl. 1/3). The first type of tile represents a copy of the kind of tiles that were found at the Celje castle, where they were dated to the last quarter of the 15th century and the transition from the 15th to the 16th centuries. On the basis of the stratigraphy of the finds, the typology of the stove tiles, and radiocarbon analyses, the tile stove from Vrbovec is dated to the second half of the 16th century. Although there is no specific mention of this in the historical sources, the early modern period horizon of the ruins at the medieval castle of Vrbovec should be tied to the aristocratic Rattkay family. The burg Vrbovec at Klenovec Humski with this discovery has become not merely an archaeological source for the medieval period, but also an excellent source for investigating the early modern period.


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vedrana Delonga

Within the archaeological-historical complex at the hillfort of Biranj (Kaštel Lukšić), the ancient church of St. John the Baptist stands out in particular as a cultural entity. Three architectural phases (Romanesque, Late Gothic, and Modern period) can be perceived in its present appearance. The façade of the church bears a group of late medieval inscriptions in Latin: a donative inscription on the lintel, dated 1444 and also by the reign of the Venetian Doge Francesco Foscari (today placed in the interior of the church), as well as four consecratory inscriptions from the same time on the corners of the church. They were placed by donors (church juspatronatus) on the structure of the church on the occasion of the dedication of the thoroughly renovated original church of St. John, which had been built in the Romanesque period, at the end of the 12th or in the early 13th century, as the endowment of the Ostrog free villagers. From the donative inscription on the lintel it is learned that the ruinous Romanesque church was renovated from the foundations up by the juspatronus and plebanus Grgur Nikolin, the archpresbyter and canon of the Trogir diocese, in the name of a personal vow and the vows of all the juspatroni of St. John of Biranj. The four consecratory inscriptions with the text + Christus venit in pace et Deus homo factus est on the corners of the Late Gothic church from the same period are particularly interesting. On the basis of the contents it is hypothesized that they represent some kind of reminiscence of the possible original epigraphic dedications from the period of the construction of the Romanesque church at the end of the 12th century or in the early decades of the 13th century. The inscriptions and the sacred structure to which they belong are considered in the framework of the site as a cultural-historical complex and multi-century religious shrine and are analyzed in terms of the formal and contextual epigraphic traits. Their context is explored in the framework of the historical and religious-spiritual conditions related to the specific area in the period of the developed (12th and 13th centuries) and late Middle Ages (middle of the 15th century).


1981 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-129
Author(s):  
Piero Morselli

A group of Michelangelo's architectural drawings preserved in the Ashmolean and in the British Museum contains several detailed studies for a tall, semi-octagonal structure. Whereas the sketches have been dated ca. 1518, the nature of the building and its intended location are still a matter of debate. Recently, Wilde argued that the drawings show the ground plan and elevation of an ambo. This identification has been challenged on the basis that ambos had disappeared from liturgical use and had been replaced by pulpits centuries before Michelangelo. An examination of documents and sources reveals, however, that single and paired ambos had been built in the 15th century and that the 16th century marked a renewed liturgical interest in the Early Christian amboni tradition. Michelangelo's sketches in all probability reflect a project intended as part of the program for the embellishment of S. Maria del Fiore. This assumption is strengthened by the date of the drawings, executed after Michelangelo's return to Florence, by the contemporary decision of the operai to remodel the old choir of the church, and by the general architectural scheme of Michelangelo's ambo, which seems to have been conceived with the interior of this church in mind.


Ars Adriatica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-80
Author(s):  
Mario Pintarić ◽  
Damir Tulić

The article discusses a late Gothic statue of Pietà in the permanent collection of the Maritime and Historical Museum of the Croatian Littoral in Rijeka. It is a wooden statue with poorly preserved traces of polychrome painting and gilding, discovered in 1920 in the attic of the parish church of Mary’s Assumption in Rijeka. Vanda Ekl dated it to the end of the third quarter of the 15th century without specifying its circle of origin or its history. Based on a stylistic analysis, as well as a series of typological and formal analogies, the Pietà of Rijeka can now be brought into connection with the woodcarver Leonardo Thannner from Bavarian Landshut, active in Friuli during the second half of the 15th century. A crucial comparative example can be found in Thanner’s polychromatic wooden group of The Lamentation of Christ from the church of Santa Maria della Fratta in San Daniele del Friuli (1488). Rijeka Lamentation, a hitherto unknown and here for the first time published statue, can be linked with a workshop or a circle of the Friulian sculptor Giovanni Martini and approximately dated to the first quarter of the 16th century.


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