Hortus Artium Medievalium

The authors deliver a short history of the project Corpus architecturae religiosae europeae (IV-X saec.),begun in 2001: the corpus aims to catalogue the religious buildings of Europe between the 4^thand the very beginning of the 11^thcenturies. Not only will the corpus be an unified catalogue of all European late antique and early medieval ecclesiastical buildings, and thus a comprehensive working tool for the standardization of data, providing plans to a uniform model, but it will also attempt (in the synthesis volumes) to interpret their function and meaning and the relationship between the different churches in each area. In this way, the corpus will be a first step towards new research on Christian architecture and a starting point from which to develop different new interpretations. The first results are reported, such as the chronological framework, the catalogue form, and the structure of the volumes.

The aim of this paper is the description of a collaborative platform, WikiBridge, designed for managing knowledge in the context of the corpus CARE. This platform provides users with tools needed to work on the description of religious buildings and their evolution over the centuries through a specific spatio-temporal model. The knowledge of archaeologists is modeled through an ontology. The platform is based on a wiki interface associated with an annotated database and meets the requirements of the Semantic Web (RDF, OWL, SPARQL).

To value, by a spatial entry, the constitution of the digital corpus CARE (Corpus Architecturae Religiosae Europeae - saec. IVX), stored in the Wikibridge database, a special application of on-line mapping was realized using OpenLayers, MapServer with TileCache and GeoJSON web service for the link with CARE Wikibridge.

This contribution summarizes the objectives and the tasks developed within the framework of the CARE-Hispania project; it provides also some general thoughts about religious architecture in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearics. The main problems concerning its study are addressed: the long historiographic tradition, and the possibilities offered by the buildings themselves, the liturgy, the documents and the epigraphic evidence in order to study the architecture. The paper focuses in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula and the Balearics due to the fact that the project has initiated its activities in these regions.

The centre of Europe, the territory of the today’s Czech and Slovak Republics, was Christianized sometime at the end of the 8^thor at the beginning of the 9^thcent. From this time stem solitary finds of churches. The main assemblage of architecture dates to the time span between 1^sthalf of the 9^thand the middle of the 11^thcent. We know of about 30 such buildings, mostly of banal building types and scales. The only exceptions are three basilicas, one building with three apses, and one with transept. A scientific interest in early medieval architecture is to be traced back to the end of the 19^thcent. in Bohemia, from the beginning of the 20^thin Moravia, and since the 1920s/1930s in Slovakia. The excavation methods have undergone changes from a heritage conservation survey, through the methods of Prehistoric excavation to the current approach that makes use of modern geodetic and geophysical methods, building technology, and natural sciences.

The ANR project CARE-IV-X saec. (2008-2011) is the French contribution to the international program, introduced in 2002 by the IRCLAMA - a corpus aiming to list the religious buildings of Europe between the 4^thand the very beginning of the 11^thcent. AD. These churches have been studied in France since the 19^thcent.; the Corpus has to give an up-to-date vision using current methodologies. France elaborated the IT database, semantic Web Wikibridge, with on-line seizure and interrogations, which will be used by all the European countries after translations. Since 2010, the Wiki system allows French regional teams or individuals to prepare forms for IT seizure and texts intended for a paper publication. As in the other countries involved in the project, work is progressing at various speeds. Some of the working teams of archaeologists, historians, art historians - from most of French universities, CNRS , Ministry of Culture (archaeology, historical monuments, museums and archives), region or town archaeology services, private rescue archaeology services, students, etc., were formed and started to collect data only in 2010 or 2011; Île de France and Paris should begin in 2012. This is a true work in progress. While feeding the IT database, 5 French regions began to collect in this phase of the project the material for a simple or grouped paper volume.

In Auvergne, Late Antiquity and the first centuries of the Middle Ages are two periods which have been already well studied especially by historians. The establishment and the development of the first Christian sites have been highlighted, but the architecture of the few known churches has been less investigated. In order to offer a first synthetic overview as part of the CARE project, the aim of this analyze is to explain the formal, decorative and technical characteristics of religious constructions, built prior to the 11^thcentury, for buildings which are mentioned in the textual documentation, which walls are still standing or which have been stroked by archaeology, in cities as well as in rural parts of the Late Antique Civitas Arvernorum, i.e. Clermont’s diocese. Some continuities and changes are emphasized; the information is faced with the parallel development of cemeteries to estimate the impact of funeral organization on the architectural evolution.

This article gives the current state of the art of the Corpus architecturae religiosae europeae (IV-X saec.) in Croatia - the Croatian part of the international program introduced in 2001 by the IRCLAMA (International Research Centre for Late Antiquity and Middle Ages, Zagreb). This corpus’ aim is to list the religious buildings of Europe between the 4^thand the very beginning of the 11^thcent. AD. These Early Christian and Pre-Romanesque churches have been studied in Croatia since the end of the 19^th cent., mainly in Dalmatia and Istria; the Corpus will offer an up-to-date vision using new methodologies. As in the other countries involved in the project, work is progressing at various speeds.

This article is intended to present a summary of both historical and recent work carried out on the rich Early Christian architecture of the Kvarner region. This geographical entity covers the north-eastern part of the Adriatic Sea, situated between the Istrian peninsula to the north-west and the Dalmatian coast to the south-east. Thanks to its particular position, the Early Christian architecture of the region exhibits from the very start (the beginning of the 5^thcentury) clear signs of Aquilean, Istrian and Iadertine influence. Around the turn of the mid 6^thcent., a new wave of influence is legible, through new architectural elements clearly displaying the growing power of the proto-Byzantine era. Some recent results help to shed new light on old areas of study, while at the same time creating new ones. The problem of Christianization and the ecclesiastical territorial organization are clearly noted, as are questions of population density and of its control by the Church throughout the 5^thand, to a greater extent, 6^thcent. Other questions are equally raised, such as the permanence and changes of maritime and terrestrial communications (pilgrimage…).

The study of the suburban churches in Rome - about 60 in the 7^thcent. - can furnish important data, not only about history of Christianity, liturgy, hagiography and Christian architecture, but also for the reconstruction of the Late Antique and Early medieval settlement in the territory extra urbem. A new corpus of the buildings, adjourning the work of Krautheimer according to the CARE criteria, would therefore result essential. Suburban churches developed in particular a very important role within the phenomenon of the pilgrimage. Especially in the 7^thcent., these sites became privileged aims of the devotees that came to Rome even from the most remote regions, to visit the graves of apostles and martyrs. For these devotees “guides” were written; their reception and their stay were guaranteed by a series of infrastructures. In that century of crisis, that saw the passage from antiquity to the Middle Ages, the pilgrimage did actually feed the “asphyxiated” economy of the city.

The archaeological study of Late Roman and Early Medieval Christian buildings does not enjoy, in Suothern Italy, a long-standing tradition. For most of the 20th century Christian buildings from this historical period have been mostly studied from an architectural and art-historical point of view. In a land where some of the most celebrated sites of the Classical world have been brought to light, archaeologists have not payed much attention to the remains of the post-classical period. Quite the opposite, when the latter have interfered with the former, very often they have just simply been removed, making it impossible to understand, for example, that Greek temples from Paestum and Selinunte had been turned into churches in Late Antiquity. The actual beginning of church archaeology in Southern Italy goes back not earlier than the beginning of the last decade of the 20th century, when medieval and christian archaeologists have actually started to work together, within a wider and more complex idea of building a proper landscape archaeology. The essay therefore re-examines more or less one hundred and twenty years of research trying to recognize and describe the most important scholars and research groups who have operated in Southern Italy, from different perspectives and with different tools, towards the construction of a scientifically reliable knowledge of the Christian heritage dating back to Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

First Christian traces in today’s Serbia date from the time of Diocletian (Martyrs). Bishops are mentioned in towns from the 4^thcent. onwards. The North Illyrian provinces collapsed as well as its churches at the beginning of the 7^thcent. due to the Barbarian invasions and the Slav settlement. Following the written sources, the Serbs have been baptized at first 610-641 and again in the 2^ndhalf of the 9^thcent. The traces consist of around 90 archaeologically investigated Early Christian churches remains, although the number will be much higher, considering the amount of unexplored settlements dating from the 4^th-6^th/beginning of 7^thcent. The churches are divided by place of their erection (village, town) and type of plan. The number of known Early Medieval churches (9-10^thcent.) is much lower; St. Peter and Paul’s rotunda near Novi Pazar and St. Procopius’ church in Prokuplje are mentioned as examples. A short history of investigation and research methods is given, regarding the period from the 19^thcent. till the present time.

This paper presents the organisation of the departments in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as part of the international research group CARE. Based on the catalogues of the “Vorromanische Kirchenbauten” and other substantial publications the online database will be constructed using the CARE Wikibridge system, in the next few years - an updated and expanded material base, dynamically managed. The authors will organise and coordinate the trinational project.

The Care Project in Belgium is still only at its beginning. To date, there is no critical catalogue of the Early Medieval churches. The division of heritage expertise complicates project development across the country. A working group has nevertheless been founded. The inventory of sites to remember is being developed and the first files, based on the French model, will cover recent research such as Nivelles, Tournai…

A preliminary survey of the early medieval cemeteries in the territory of the Garda lake (northern Italy) shows the complexity and variety of funerary practices used by its population between the 5^thand the 9^thcent. The application of a multidisciplinary approach to some funerary complexes linked to churches (mainly San Pietro in Mavinas on the Sirmione peninsula and San Cassiano at Riva di Garda) reveals interesting data useful to understand not only the composition of the cemeteries but also the function and meaning of the buildings.