Architecture and Pilgrimage 1000-1500

Although there is an obvious association between pilgrimage and place relatively little research has centred directly on the role of architecture. Architecture and Pilgrimage 1000-1500: Southern Europe and Beyond synthesizes the work of a distinguished international group of scholars. It takes a broad view of architecture to include cities routes ritual topographies and human interaction with the natural environment as well as specific buildings and shrines and considers how these were perceived represented and remembered. The essays explore both the ways in which the physical embodiment of pilgrimage cultures is shared and what we can learn from the differences. The chosen period reflects the flowering of medieval and early modern pilgrimage. The perspective is that of the pilgrim journeying within - or embarking from - Southern Europe with a particular emphasis on Italy. The book pursues the connections between pilgrimage and architecture through the investigation of such issues as theology liturgy patronage miracles and healing relics and individual and communal memory. Moreover it explores how pilgrimage may be regarded on various levels from a physical journey towards a holy site to a more symbolic and internalized idea of pilgrimage of the soul.