Hortus Artium Medievalium

The case of Rome is of course a special one. But it really deserves being investigated here, because the provided examples offer a very broad range of solutions, then to be observed elsewhere. First, it should be noticed that the pagan imperial monuments were not transformed into churches, but functioned as defensive structures. And for the mausolea (re)used as churches, there are variations as to the moment of their conversion: immediately for Helen’s mausoleum, a few centuries later for the one of Constantina and both of those adjoining the transept of St. Peter in Vatican. For the mausolea holding the remains of Constantine’s mother and daughter, the more or less early recognition of their holiness is in close relation with the devotional and cultual practices in situ ; for the two Vatican examples, it has been necessary to bring relics in order to convert the previous mausoleum into a true sanctuary.

Although abbot Martin is supposed to have collected and brought it all to Rome, as pope John IV had asked him to, the relics of salonitan martyrs are venerated since the Early Middle Ages in Split cathedral, settled in the octagon of Diocletian’s Palace, in the ager of Salona, former capital of Roman Dalmatia. Both main martyrs of the ancient city, first bishop Domnio and Anastasius fullonicus, are the medieval patrons of the cathedral beside Virgin Mary. Anastasius had previously been buried in a private mausoleum on the necropolis of Marusinac - mausoleum which gave birth to a pilgrimage ecclesial complex including a basilica gemina. Having first looked for graves ad sanctos at Manastirine near Domnio’s grave, the salonitan bishops invest Marusinac in the 6^th-7^th centuries; this tradition is revived in Split from the 9^th-10^thcentury onwards in the ambulatory around the cathedral.

The burial area established on the former site of the thermal baths of the Wrestlers gives essential data about Late Antique Vienna beyond the 3^rdcent. AD. In a private family mausoleum a memorial crypt is developed, suggesting the existence of a particular grave, maybe of several venerated tombs. This transformation finds an echo in some well-known writings about the worship of the local martyr Ferréol. Associated with the city topography, these architectural data, dating from the very time of the martyrdom, renew our perception of the context at the origins of this worship, amongst the oldest attested in Gaul.

The excavations at St-Lawrence’s show the evolution of the main burial site of Grenoble since Antiquity. Among mausoleums, a building with a paved crypt provided with a bench, a niche and 1-2 fenestellae could be the memoria of one of the 1^st bishops around 400. Around it are grouped many burial places, formae and sarcophagi. A cruciform basilica with superimposed trefoil transept built on this memoria is consecrated in 516, vaulted and richly decorated around 600. During Early Middle Ages, Saint-Laurent is the most important suburban burial church. Around 800 an opposite church is built over the memoria which crypt is preserved, and linked to the transept; the eastern end of the cross-shaped church forming another crypt. A priory from 1012, this suburb parish church lived until French Revolution. The diachronic study stresses the importance of funeral practices and worship of saints during Early Christian times, and shows how local architecture remains in harmony with perpetually changing practices and liturgies.

According to the medieval historical tradition, Saint-Seurin was the city of Bordeaux’ oldest Christian church. This idea influenced the orientation of all researches from the 19^thcentury until the 1980s. From 1995 onwards, new research led to forget the idea that St-Seurin’s church had been the first cathedral of Bordeaux. Recent study of the documentation from the excavations undertaken during the 20^thcentury, and the re-examination of the wall of constructions unearthed to the south of the church have enlightened its development around a Late Antique mausoleum belonging to a 4^thcent. necropolis. We are now able to understand the development of this mausoleum, which later became the core of the medieval crypt linked to the memory of bishop Seurin. The funerary context of the origin of Saint-Seurin is now well understood, but the chronology of the different phases of its development remains to be clarified.

Reused big granite stone blocks dating from the antique period can be observed in rural churches of Limousin region; in a certain number of cases, it is possible to attribute them to funeral mausoleums. Through different examples - two of them being the aim of current archaeological research (La Souterraine’s crypt and St-Hilaire’s church in Moutier-Rozeille) - this article will show that roman monumental tombs were not absent in the Lemovices countryside and that their mode of construction, made to last, participated in a voluntary or pragmatic way in the Christianization of the rural world in the Early Middle Ages.

In the Centre-West of France, archaeological researches on burial spaces dating from the Late Antiquity or the early Middle Ages need to be actualized. A rapid overview of the sites in Poitou and Charente shows a certain diversity of structures and configurations: some attests a long proximity between sanctuaries (pagan or Christian) and tombs (monumental or not), some a link with villae. Private vaults are still built until the Carolingian period, but the nature of the buildings upon needs often to be precised: mausoleum or simple enclosure. All of these data invite to revisit the relationship between these buildings and the first churches, in particular the Carolingian and early Romanesque Crypts. Some examples, as Civaux, Mornac-sur-Seudre and Chadenac are more detailed here.

In Provence are preserved several examples of monuments showing the transition from a mausoleum to a church. After a rereading of different cases, this article focuses on places of worship functioning as mausoleums. This is leading to wonder about the links between time of death, burial site and place of worship. The new representations of death welcomed by the potentes, reflect in numerous and various experiments in their oratoria. Late 5^th-early 6^thcent. is a period of promotion of monuments similar to ancient mausoleums, but at the time linked to a church which gains a funeral and family dimension. These monumental choices must be related to the image of a “good death” conveyed by Christian literature. The private church considered as a memoria is undoubtedly one of the 1^st place where the Christian dead have been brought together: the cymiterium christianorum is the link between this study and the issues about the cemetery birth in rural space.

The mausoleum has an important place in research concerning early medieval crypts. It is a question best approached here through examples from Burgundy, showing how its morphology could play a role in the conception of the eastern ends of basilicas surmounting vaulted crypts of this period. Accounts describe mausolea built for the bishops of Autun that were still standing above ground in the 16^thcent. In Dijon, Griselles or Auxerre however, archaeology has revealed the architectural remnants of an ancient mausoleum incorporated in a crypt which made it survive, at least part of it, until today. More than just technical, this transformation of mausoleums into crypts did ensure the perpetuation of the memory and demonstrated, under the leadership of the bishops, the age of a prestigious foundation at the very origin of the ecclesia.

The case of Lyon is interesting because of the ancient Christianization known through the Christians martyrs of Lugdunum and Vienna in 177, the role of the city, a religious capital managed by prelates and one of the burgundy capitals. To study the process leading from the mausoleum to the funeral basilica, Lyon offers several contemporary texts and lots of excavations data, 8 funeral basilicas, sometimes built on older mausoleums (St-Just, St-Irénée), and several small family mausoleums. In order to strengthen their authority and the faith of the believers, bishops promoted the cult of saints and local martyrs; they built big funeral basilicas intended to shelter graves of simple people as well as burial of saints or martyrs; big transepts and crypts were planned for their worship at St-Just, St-Irénée and St Lawrence of Choulans. These funeral basilicas did also Christianize the suburbium between the 2^ndhalf of the 5^thand the beginning of the 7^thcent. AD.

The existence of the Abbey of Saint-Maurice in Valais (Switzerland) is due to the veneration of the martyrs of the Theban Legion. Emperor Maximian decimated those soldiers at the end of the 3^rdcent. near the antique Acaunus, a tollbooth on the road over the pass of the « Grand St-Bernard ». Bishop Theodor found the bones of the soldiers and their commander Maurice in the late 4^th century. By building a basilica near the place of the martyrdom Theodor put on the base for a devotion that spread all over the occidental world. On the perimeter of the Abbey 3 distinct sanctuaries are attested during the 1^st millennium: the martyrial church under the « Martolet » yard, a 2^ndlarge church situated in the same direction under the « Parvis » yard and a baptistery at south between the 2 churches. This article deals with the origins of the 1^stchurch called « du Martolet », in particular about the passage from the roman tomb-area to a place of Christian faith. For the festivities of the 1500^thanniversary of the monastery a monograph devoted to history, archaeology and the treasury of the Abbey will be published and a new museography of the remnants is planned.Trad: Tobia Antonini.

Around 350 AD, a building circa 10 m long marks the Christian origins of Geneva. Two privileged graves are linked to it. This “oratory” was kept in situ during the construction works of the 1^stcathedral until it was finished by the end of the 4^th cent. In a contemporary church, next to the bishop’s residence, a funeral vault is build at the centre of the chancel ; a walking path limited by screens allows the faithful to get very close to the venerated vault. These two examples of inhumations inside the town bring a lot of questioning as the cemeteries are usually located extra muros. The very high dating of the primary “oratory” and its specific tripartite plan are both unique to the North of the Alps.

The archaeological remains of this proto-byzantine monastery are located in Umm el-’Amr 10 km south of Gaza. Covering more than 14 000 m², the site is dated from the 4^thcent. to the late 8^thcent., from Late Antiquity to the Islamic period. The architectural complex is attributed to Saint Hilarion, the father of Palestinian monasticism. The monastery is divided into two juxtaposed architectural poles, a religious one to the south around the sanctuary, a second one to the north around a bath complex and a building dedicated to the pilgrims’accommodation. At the moment five successive periods for the church and three for the bath complex have been revealed. In its architectural later version, the monastery is the biggest one in Palestine and one of the most important in the region. Here, the memory of the saint will be perpetuated in several successive churches and in a monumental crypt which dimensions remained unparalleled in the Middle East.

The Roman temples at the North-West side of the Pula Forum had a different destiny in the course of historic events and with regard to their functions. The first large temple from Rome’s republican era, a temple dedicated to Augustus and Rome and the so-called Temple of Diana were built to the East and West of the central temple, respectively. The Augustus’ Temple was converted into a Christian church St. Mary at a very early stage. The St. Marcus’ Chapel was attached to the Diana’s east side temple. In the 18^thcentury, the Roman temple-church was converted into Venetian grain storage, and in 1805 it became a Lapidarium, a repository for Roman monuments. Today it also serves as a space for museum exhibitions. The eastern forum temple, the Temple of Diana, partly constructed on the remains of the central temple’s fundament walls, had a long and variable functional history. At the end of the 13^thcentury, the city’s oldest Gothic palace was built within the temple complex. In later reconstructions of the town hall only the shorter back wall (Cella) bearing Roman architectural features and floral decorations was preserved. The front side facing the forum was transformed into an interesting eclectic Renaissance and Baroque facade with a loggia. Above the loggia, the spolia of a siren and a horseman were inserted in the older structure of the Gothic palace. Thanks to the continuing functional change of the Capitoline buildings throughout the centuries, Pula today still has an integral architectural complex consisting of two forum temples.

Archaeology of churches can be a powerful and interesting platform to study Late Antique and Early Medieval societies. However, in Northwest Spain this topic remains limited to stylistic and typological studies, despite being a very promising area of study, given the high density of ecclesiastical foundations that reflect Late Antique texts. The first step in order to begin this kind of research is to collect and analyze the features and problems of the available material data. According this idea, the first part of this work intends to carry out a brief but complete recompilation and critical review (in some extent, for the first time) of the available but scattered material information on ecclesiastical structures in Late Antique Galicia, this is, between 5^thand 8^thcenturies. This catalogue, of 50 cases, will be based both in previous archaeological works and stylistic-typological approaches from the History of Art. These two areas have initiated in the last years interesting and intense debates about the chronologies and characteristics of the Late Antique and Early Medieval churches, but they remain usually separated to each other. In this work we will discuss the main problems and possibilities for a common approach. Further, in the last part, it is aimed to discuss the coherence of all these data in the historical context that the recent advances of the research on these centuries in Northwest Spain is showing: relation with textual evidences, spatial distribution of evidences in relation to late Roman territorial articulation in Galicia, new findings on the aristocratical economies... The result is not a complete picture of late antique churches in Galicia, something which needs further case-studies, but a first framework that can help to this future development.

The early Christian complex of Illa del Rei (Menorca) consists of a church and three naves paved with mosaic, separated by pillars or columns with unique header with an annex on its northern side. A baptismal font is located in the north aisle on its eastern end. In addition to the church, other rooms extended to the East of the header and to the Southeast and Southwest of the church. These annexes include a stibadium a unique element. This contribution presents a synthesis on the complex of Illa del Rei, based on the published information and the results of a new archaeological excavation that allows suggesting a date of late 6th century or beginning of the 7th century for the ecclesiastical complex, fully within the period of Byzantine dominion of the Islands.

The main results of the 2011 excavations campaign on the site of Guran in south Istria are presented in this article. These concern the fortified early medieval settlement the origin of which is dated to the Carolingian period and which is abandoned in the late Middle Ages, and the church of St Cecilia situated some few hundred meters to the north of the settlement. The results of the excavations of St Cecilia were particularly rich, revealing at least six phases prior to the existing church. Main objectives of this international project are the analysis of the origin and the architectural development of the church erected on the site of a roman villa, as well as that of the settlement, combined with the study of the territorial and ecclesiastic organisation of this part of Istria during the late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.