Reuniting the waters, separating the lands. Windows and liminality in late antique baptism.

Starting from the paradoxical presence of windows on late antique baptisteries used at night, the paper considers the effect windows of cultic buildings had in the period. Drawing on late antique descriptions, the paper argues for windows being instrumental in the construction of a concept of sacred space and, with it, of a hierarchy rooted in their perception. The analysis points to the windows as part of a coherent strategy developed by the Church to both segment and integrate late antique communities in a crucial moment of its existence, when the cult became a mass religion.