Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Medieval Churches’ Category

Apr 27

Marmorisco-san-juan-baptista

Romanesque North

Northern Spain is littered with Romanesque Art and Architecture.  A huge restoration project recently recieved the prestigious Europa Nostra Medal 2013

Románico Norte - or Romanesque North – is the name of a huge and impressive project in Northern Spain. From 2005 to 2012 a plan was laid to institute a complete restoration of 54 churches in the diocese of Palencia and Burgos, in the old Merindad Aguilar de Campo district. The geographical area covered by the Plan focuses on the North Eastern part of the Northwest province of Palencia and Burgos, where the Southern slope of the Cantabrian Mountains meet the Castilian plateau. The vast territory with its distinct topography has posed a major challenge for the whole team trying to implement the objectives of the plan for the development of the “Romanesque North”.

romanico norte 200x300 Romanesque North

San Juan Baptista

The work has – as can be ascertained from the website – been carried out in collaboration with a number of partners, who have provided state of the art solutions. Apart from local councils the work has been funded by La Consejería de Cultura y Turismo de la Junta de Castilla y León , la Fundación Siglo para las Artes de Castilla y León  and la Fundación Santa María la Real-Centro de Estudios del Románico . Partner has also been the Dioceses of Palencia and Burgos.

The aim has been to further sustainable economic growth, through taking care of and developing the nature, history and heritage, which is embedded in the landscape. Accordingly the work is still in progress since not only the churches but also the surrounding landscape is being analysed, described and restored.

Iglesia de San Juan Bautista
This has for instance been the case in the Iglesia de San Juan Bautista in Matamorisca, where the church is decorated with a series of very well preserved murals, which have been painstakingly restores. However, in order to provide lightening for the celebration of mass and other religious services, the church had installed a really terrifying lightening system  – with ripe possibilities for fires. Further the old lightening hampered the visitor, who wanted to study the murals in detail. Apart from restoring the church, the work carried out by Románico Norte consisted in installing a state of the art lightening, where 95% of the fuses etc. were hidden and at the same time providing a better experience both for the local villagers and the cultural tourists.

Románico Norte recently received the prestigious Europa Nostra Prize for 2013.  Read the validation here –  and see the video

READ MORE: 

Románico Norte

Read more about Romanesque art in Spain

Enciclopedia del Románico en la Peninsula Iberérica

- or access the encyclopedia in digital form

 

Dec 14

© Stephane Compoint Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris celebrates its 850 Anniversary

Notre-Dame de Paris celebrates its 850-year anniversary in 2013

Next year the cathedral expects more than 20 mill visitors, celebrating the 850-year anniversary of this beautiful church. The first stone was laid in the presence of the Pope, Alexander III in 1163. It took about a hundred years to finish the impressive edifice.

Complete with a new viewing platform, improved lightening, a renovated organ and – in a little while – eight new bells, the cathedral is looking all spick and span for the celebrations the upcoming year. The lightening system is already in place, but the bells are still being poured in Normandy at the bell-maker Cornille Havard. All in all, the Cathedral has raised €6.5 mill from private donors in order to finance the ongoing projects.

The celebrations took off on December 12th with the Parisian Cardinal-Archbishop Andrè Vingt-Trois celebrating mass at an evening service in the presence of ministers as well as a large crowd of other especially invited honoratiores. Nearly 2000 took part in the event, which took place in front of the Cathedral.

At the same an interdisciplinary scientific symposium is taking place in Collège des Bernadins, where focus is not so much the building itself but the religious life at the Cathedral through 850 years. The program can be viewed here .

Publications
In connection with the anniversary a heavy coffee-table book  – 27 x 37 cm, 504 pages, 600 images and 2 kilos – has been published. The book covers the history of the construction from the 12th century and up until now as well as tells the story of the building as a set-piece for the great events in French History. The book is published in the series “La Grace d’une Cathédrale” published by La Nuée Bleue Editions. The proceedings from the scientific symposium will be published later this year.

stephane compoint notre dame de paris 300x170 Notre Dame de Paris celebrates its 850 Anniversary

Notre Dame de Paris @Stephane Compoint

Stéphane Compoint
In connection with the anniversary the magazine Pelerin has hired the photographer Stéphane Compoint to take photos with his special technique. He uses a camera mounted on a balloon filled with helium, which he directs from below. A presentation of how this is done may be seen at the site of Pelerins. The photos may be enjoyed as part an E-pilgrimage taking seven days and inviting the pilgrim every day to enjoy and reflect upon the special sites of Notre Dame de Paris.

Sign up to receive the daily email with the E-pilgrimage aka photo-safari by Stéphane Compoint here 

Read more about the Celebrations at Notre Dame de Paris 2013

 

Notre Dame de Paris. La Grace d’une Cathedrale.
Ed. by Dany Sandron, Jean-Pierre Cartier and Gerard Pélletier.
Paris, La NuéeBleue Editions 2012.

 

 

 

 

Contact@Notredamedeparis2013.com

 

http://www.pelerin.info/Histoire-Patrimoine/Notre-patrimoine/Le-site-Pelerin.info-celebre-en-multimedia-le-jubile-de-Notre-Dame-de-Paris

Nov 23

tympanon-saint-denis-paris
2 Comments

St. Denis in Paris

St. Denis is a jewel hidden in the derelict Northern suburbs of Paris..

The French government has coughed up with €4 mil, in order to renovate the façade of St. Denis, turning it from an ugly grey into the original hue of golden sandstone. A few days ago the scaffolds went up and some preliminary cleaning tests have already been carried through, uncovering a long hidden beauty.

Lying in a corner of one of the most derelict suburbs in Northern Paris it shows its wear and tear more than might be expected; basically its surroundings drag it down into the turmoil and stress of the constant socially, racially and religiously motivated eruptions, which from time to time explode in the streets and in the media. Anyone visiting the site might imagine that the French governments might have grasped this opportunity years ago to “upgrade” the area; but no! Although the building has been cared for during the years and is in no way falling apart, it is obvious that funding has been lacking. Dozens of statues are waiting in the back to be restored, while in some places the famous stained glass have had to be taken down in order to stop the decay. Probably one reason is that the church is such a poignant symbol of the France that was. Its story reaches back into the early Middle Ages, when the Merovingian king Dagobert chose the monastery as his royal necropolis. Since then 43 kings and 32 queens were buried there, some of which were the guillotined Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who were reinterred there after the restoration of the French monarchy, following the Napoleonic era. However, at that time the bones of their ancestors had already for a long time been dissolving in lime-pits, where they were dumped on the orders of revolutionary officials. Today the bones are kept in an ossuary in the crypt behind marble plates.

benidorme st denis 300x225 St. Denis in Paris

The preambulatory at St. Denis

Louis XVII
The latest royal “funeral” was staged in 2004, when royalists were able to get permission to bury a small, rock-hard relic, presumably part of the heart of the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who was orphaned in 1793 and died of tuberculosis in 1795. The heart had been identified by DNA-analysis. At the “funeral” royalists flocked to the church; afterwards cries of “long live the king” was heard outside the cathedral hailing one of the pretenders to the French Throne. No wonder the government of the French Republic in the present political climate is feeling ambiguous about this potential center for right-winged pilgrimages; which to make the matter worse has been targeted by the “sans-papiers” – illegal immigrants – as a good place to demonstrate, hence their occupation of the Cathedral in September 2012; reverberating back through the centuries to the revolutionary desecration, which took place in 1793.

henri iV 300x225 St. Denis in Paris

Bust of Henry IV at St. Denis

Now the royalists are once more stirring op. The occasion is the embalmed head of Henry IV, which apparently escaped this ransacking. For centuries the head was passed along among private collectors until a journalist tracked it down in 2010. Later a multidisciplinary team of scientist identified the head as indeed that of Henry IV; although a DNA analysis failed, this was done using a combination of anthropological, paleopathological, radiological and forensic techniques. After the identification the mummified head was donated to Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, one of the claimants to the French Throne. Anjou decided to have the head interred in the Cathedral of St. Denis after a national Mass in 2011, later referred to May 2012. However due to the election, Sarkozy withheld the permission. Presently the head is at present stored in an unknown place pending further deliberations and negotiations between the pretender to the throne, the Duke of Anjou and president Hollande.

St. Louis
Another hurdle, the government has to confront, are the celebration planned for the 800 anniversary of the birth of Louix IX, commonly known as Saint Louis, on the 25th of April 2014. Apart from being king, he was also a member of a trinitarian order and canonized in 1297. How the celebrations will be conducted is as yet unknown, although there can be no doubt that the catholic Church of France will miss this out on this opportunity to get some PR. Whether it will help to heighten the awareness of the monument in an international context is a yet unknown. It is a fact that while millions visit Notre Dame every year, only a measly 150.000 take the Metro out North.

Even though it is well worth a detour!

Aug 28

richardIII-portrait

Richard III

British archaeologists hope to find the lost remains of King Richard III by digging up a car park believed to be his burial site.

Richard III – the small and slender villain of Shakespeares play died at Bosworth Field on the 22 of August 1485. The Lancastrians and their leader, Henry Tudor, won the battle. Following the battle, Richards’s dead body was transported back to Leicester and placed on public view. Subsequently he was buried in the choir of the Franciscan Church in Leicester

However, this Franciscan priory known as Greyfriars, was demolished in 1538 when the monastery was dissolved, and its roofs and lead was sold. In 1612 a mansion was built on the site and a stone pillar was erected to mark the site of Richard’s grave. After 1914 land and gardens were sold to the County, which erected offices around it and even this marker disappeared. Finally it was turned into a car park and tarmaced in 1940. The only physical remnant of the church is a small piece of a grey stone-wall, which can be seen next to the attendant’s hut in the car park.

Richard III dig 300x224 Richard IIIAfter the dissolution in 1538 it was rumoured that the remains of Richard were thrown into the River Soar. However researchers at the University of Leicester now think they be able to discover the actual site of the grave, situated somewhere beneath the car park. Even if Richard no longer lies there it is important to determine the actual layout of the church and the original position of the grave, says Richard Buckley, Co-Director of the Archaeology Service at the University of Leicester.

- The big question for us is determining the whereabouts of the church on the site, and also where in the church the body was buried, says Richard Buckley, co-director of Leicester University’s archaeology service, adding: “Although in many ways finding the remains of the king is a long-shot, it is a challenge we shall undertake enthusiastically. There is certainly potential for the discovery of burials within the area, based on previous discoveries and the postulated position of the church.”

If any remains are found it is hoped that it will be possible to have them undergo DNA-analysis at the University in order to compare them to the findings of Dr. John Ashdown-Hill, author of “The Last days of Richard III”. This very detailed (and recommendable) account of the last months in the life of Richard III presents the reader with not only a nuanced description of his daily routines as a king, but also a very interesting description of his actual burial and how and where it took place. Another account by David Baldwin is available here.

One of the initiators of the whole project is Philippa Langley, who is currently researching for a film, which is meant to tell the “real” story of Richard III, which according to her hides behind the spin of the Tudors who took over from the last Plantagenet. She is a screenwriter and member of the Richard III Society as well.

Visitors will not be able to view the dig once it commences, as it will take place at an operational council area, which is not publicly accessible. Further it is necessary to keep the dig as a so-called clean site in order to be able to get valid results from any DNA-analysis. However plans are underway to let the public in on the site, when the excavation culminates on the weekend of the 8th – 9th of September. If the remains of Richard III are identified, the plan is to exhibit them at Leicester Cathedral after they have been examined in order to gather information about his height, his build (his hunchback?) and the manner in which he was killed. It is presumed that this will also induce a massive logistical exercise in order to provide Richard with a burial that is appropriate to his status as an anointed King of England, whether at Leicester, Windsor or Westminster; or maybe York where he probably planned to be entombed together with his wife and son.

Read more and get the link at the Press Office at the University of Leicester and follow the news on the blog

Video interview with archaeologist Richard Buckley

Richard III Society

Ricardian Britain – A Guide to sites associated with Richard III. By Beth and Phil Stonen. Richard III Society 2011

Recent books about about Richard III

Richard III
David Baldwin
Amberley Publishing 2012

The Last Days of Richard III
John Ashdown-Hill
The History Press Ltd 2010

Richard III and the Murder in the Tower
Peter A. Hancock
The History Press Ltd 2011 (2. Edition)

Richard III: The Maligned King
Annette Carson
The History Press Ltd 2009

Richard III and the Death of Chivalry
David Hipshon
The History Press 2009

Richard III (Routledge Historical Biographies)
David Hipshon
Routledge 2010

 Extended booklist of publications about Richard III may be found here

Jun 27

Birka-fortification-hill-fort-Udo-Schroeter-wiki

Churches in Birka

NEW MEDIEVAL RESEARCH:

Gautberts church in Birka may have been located on the Hillfort

The hill fort (180 x 100 meter) at the Viking emporium at Birka (near present day Stockholm) was located on a stony hill above the city and defended by a 2-3 meter high bulwark, built out of stone and earth and with a palisade on top. In the 1990’s archaeologists excavated the fortifications of the hill and the city and found that part of these stemmed from the beginning of 800. This is very interesting in so far as we have rather precise descriptions of life in this Viking city in the Vita Ansgari, written by Rimbert, who was part of the mission to the Scandinavians in the years after 826. According to the Vita their mission resulted in a number of churches being erected and consecrated.

The archaeologist, Torun Zacrisson, has recently reflected in an article in Fornvännen upon the possibilities of correlating the rich archaeological findings in Birka and the descriptions in the vita; one important question has been the intensified interest in locating the two churches of Heirgeir and Gautbert. Heirgeir must have been a prominent nobleman in the region (the article identifies him as “jarl”), while the latter was consecrated as bishop of Birka in after 832, where he is said to have built a church and functioned as bishop for more than 10 years.

The church of Heirgeir is commonly thought to have been located at Helgö, where archaeological excavations in the 1960’s discovered several liturgical objects: a christening scoop from Egypt, an Irish crozier and a silver bowl ornamented with a cross. Another spectacular find were fragments of so-called Tating ware, which might have been used as liturgical pitchers. Other researchers, however, believe that the church of Heirgeir might have been located in Birka proper; and that the church of Heigeir was the predecessor of the one, which Gautbert built and consecrated, when he arrived at Birka in 832.

If this church was located in Birka, it is highly likely that it was built inside the fortified hill fort, claims Zacrisson. One argument is, that a comparison with cities elsewhere on the European continent, points to such a location, which would make it structurally similar. At the hill archaeologist found a large hall 19 x 9,5 meter with curved walls and strong posts, which must have been visible from far away. The nearest parallel is the great hall at Uppsala.

Thus, if the church was located at the hill fort, cities like Minden and Münster may have served as models. These cities were located near to the imperial Abbey of Corvey, where Ansgar, Rimbert and probably Gautbert lived before they embarked on their missionary travels. Another similar layout may have been found at Haithabu in Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany. At this emporium, we are told that Ansgar had a church built. Excavations have not demonstrated the exact location, but it is generally believed, that this church might have been located under or nearby the present Haddebyer church located north of the city at a hilltop, protected by the local stronghold on one side and the swamps bordering Schlien at the other side.

If it all went as the Vita tells us! Recently the medievalist, Eric Knibbs, published his investigations into the spin, which both Ansgar and Rimbert placed on their missionary efforts. According to Knibbs, Ansgar did not found an archdiocese at all. Rather, the idea of Hamburg-Bremen only took root in the tenth century, and royal sponsorship of the mission to Denmark and Sweden ended with the death of Louis the Pious 840.

 Arkeologin bakom Rimbert. Om Hergeirs och Gautberts kyrkor och borgen i Birka. By Torun Zachrisson. Fornvännen 2011, pp.  100-112. (Articles in Fornvännen are made freely available at the internet with half a year’s embargo) [The Archaeology behind Rimbert. About the churches of Heigeir and Gautbert and the hill fort in Birka]

Ansgar, Rimbert and the Forged Foundations of Hamburg-Bremen (Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West)
Eric Knibbs
Ashgate 2011

Rimbert: Life of Anskar, the Apostle of the North, 801-865