Medieval Churches

Edited by Niall C.E.J. O'Brien as part of an online exhibition to coincide with the conference held on 8 th March 2012 at the Waterford Institute of Technology to mark the 150 th anniversary of the birth of Canon Patrick Power (8 th March 1862)

Ever Renewing, Apotropaic Sheela-na-gigs.
The Celtic Sheela–na–gigs also Sil na gCioch (‘Sheela of the Breasts’) or
Sile i n-a-giob (‘Sheela on her hunkers’) (GR: 58) are rock carvings of goddesses with skeletal faces, bent knees and in full iconic genital display. They are frequently found on entrances to medieval churches, cemeteries, and public buildings. Although most frequently associated with Ireland (100 plus), Sheela–na–gigs are also found throughout Europe including England and Scotland (40) but less often in Germany, France, and Spain. (SDG: 211; SNG.) The dates of origin vary, but Etienne Rynne believes the earliest Celtic find is from Saarland, Germany, c. 400 BCE. (PCBS: 190.)

Kilbarron Church is a small ruinous edifice in the townland of Kilbarron approximately four kilometres north west of Ballyshannon, County Donegal. It has been  variously dated from the 14th to the 16th century and it thought to have been built by the O'Clearys who were historians to the O'Donnells.  The church may have been built as a re-dedication to St Barron  as it is situated on the site where an earlier 6th century church may have stood.  It is also situated within an area that would have been a politically contested landscape as far back as the Neolithic, considering its strategic position as a fording point and a boundary between the west and north west of Ireland.

Im Laufe der archäologischen Ausgrabungsarbeiten in der Brooser Burg, konnten Bewohnungsspuren aus dem 8.-9. Jh. festgestellt werden, über die, im 10.-11. Jh. eine Burg mit Erdwall und Palisade errichtet wurde. In der ersten Hälfte des 12. Jh., wurde diese  Burg durch einen Rechteckigen Steinturm (Bergfried) verstärkt. In derselben Zeitspanne hatte man auf dem Erdwall eine Steinkapelle mit kreisförmigem Grundriss (Rotunde) errichtet. Die Kapelle war mit einer kreisförmigen Krypta versehen. Um die mitte des 12. jh., wird der Bau erweitert, und im 14. Jh. als Wehrturm umgebaut. Die Krypta wird nach dem Bau der gotischen Kirche als Beinhaus, (Karner) benutzt. Im 19. Jh., wurde der zu Ruine verfallener Bau als Kalkgrube und schlieslich als Schuttgrube genutzt.

an article presenting biblical evidence from the New Testament for the hypothesis of the non-unwrapping of the shroud that covered the body of Jesus Christ at the time of his resurrection, according to which the body would have disappeared from inside the cloth without undoing the folds and bonds that held him; the said assumption is commonly made by defenders of the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, based on the fact that the visible image on the fabric shows no signs of over manipulation in its formative stage and immediate following moments. This characteristic is still today used by critics of the authenticity as an evidence of a process similar to canvas painting. The non-unwrapping, in turn, would sustain the other hypothesis that the image was formed by radiation coming from the body of Christ at the time of His resurrection and the miraculous escape of the glorious body out of the shroud, thus leaving the shroud empty but preserving folds and bolds, unlike it would be in the case of someone simply unwrapping the cloths to remove the body.

Upon the occasion of the Dedication of St. Paul's Votive Ship, "The Endurance," this brief festschrift celebrates the fascinating origins and traditions about Votive Ships in the ancient heritage of the Church and explores how Votive Ships can inform and inspire personal prayer.

This paper is a survey of the historical records about the areas situated at the foot of the Papuk and Krndija mountains in the Middle Ages. This continuous mountain range – which is called Sljeme / Szelemen, Mons Poseganus and Pozsegahavasa in medieval sources – separated the county of Požega, to its south, from the neighbouring counties of Križevci (Kőrös) and Baranja on its northern side; and also, in a similar way, the bishopric of Pécs from the bishopric of Zagreb. To a certain degree, the mountain retained its role of administrative delimitation during the period of the Ottoman rule (in the 16th and 17th centuries) as well, when it divided the kaza (judicial district) of Požega from that of Orahovica, both within the boundaries of the sanjak of Požega. After some introductory considerations, in this first part of the survey a compilation of data from primary sources is presented for the area on the northern side of the mountain. Here, the most important settlements, comprising castles and centers of large estates, were Voćin (Atyina), Drenovac (Darnóc) and Orahovica (Raholca). The series of data concerning the church history of these places are provided separately; the parish church of Szent-Kozma-Damján (now hamlet of Kuzma) and the Serb Orthodox monastery near Orahovica (on the territory of the medieval village of Remeta) are also included here. Early modern sources have also been examined and recounted in the survey in so far as they reveal some details about medieval buildings (castles, churches) and their subsequent fate.

Leszek Wawrykiewicz: The discovery of a Gothic church with a unique brick-skeleton construction in Kanigowo [Poland]
The article is an attempt at recreating the original appearance of a Gothic brick-skeleton church in Kanigowo near Nidzica upon the basis of architectural research. The preserved parts of the skeleton walls made it possible to recreate the original composition of the northern and southern elevation, and the retention of the mediaeval roof truss permitted the establishment of the shape of the roof. Upon the basis of these elements it became feasible to define the architectural form of a church with a unique wall construction.
Up to now the church has not been the topic of a separate monograph and has been examined only in brief mentions and notes. More, the majority of the heretofore publications have associated the origin of the skeleton construction visible inside the building with an eighteenth-century Baroque reconstruction. Upon the basis of conducted architectural studies it has been ascertained that the basic outline of the present-day solid of the church originates from the fourteenth-century. Apparently, the preserved fragments of the skeleton church walls comprise an integral element of its Gothic construction unambiguously confirmed by the dendrochronological research performed by Prof. Marek Krąpiec, and made it possible to establish the date of the erection of the brick-skeleton church as 1386.
The titular church was built from the onset with the application of two types of construction. Three-fifths of the walls were made of stones and ceramic brick, plastered on both sides. The upper part of the church walls was made out of parallel wooden constructions – from the outside with brick filling, and from the inside with timber framing. The skeleton parts of the wall comprise a uniform construction with the roof truss and possess a single system of joiners’ assembly signs. The fourteenth-century construction was covered with a high gable roof with monk-nun tiles and probably had skeleton gables, which constituted a uniform construction with the roof truss. The brick ground floor of the nave featured two entrance portals – western and southern. The nave was additionally lit with three windows arranged in the southern elevation wall while the northern elevation was devoid of all windows. The outer construction with the brick, non-plastered filling contrasted with the whitened walls of the ground floor, comprising the prime visual accent of the Gothic church elevations.
The monument possesses exceptional values on a regional and national scale. Quite probably, it is the only preserved example of a mediaeval brick-skeleton sacral building in former eastern Prussia. Presumably, there is no analogous edifice in the whole of Poland and possibly in Europe. Its other distinguishable features include artistic assets, which at present are not totally discernible. The form of the Gothic outer construction of the walls – despite the fact that a major part was concealed beneath plaster – is particularly noteworthy. Thanks to the application in each repeated span of cross-crossing elements it was possible to attain a decorative, almost ”ornamental” design of the wooden skeleton, contrasted with the brick filling. The configuration of the outer skeleton construction does not limit itself to a mere technical role, but comprises a sui generis decorative frieze crowning the brick church walls. For those reasons, suitable emphasis on this extremely valuable original construction of the church wall in the course of future conservation is to be regarded as a priority task during the revalorisation of the monument in question.

https://ochronazabytkow.nid.pl/numery/ochrona-zabytkow-3-2008/

In this third and final part of the survey, chronologically ordered sets of data from primary sources are presented for the medieval churches and monasteries situated along the southern slopes of the mountains Papuk and Krndija (i.e. along the northern border of the county of Požega). The following church establishments are comprised by the survey: the late fifteenth-century Franciscan convent in Poljanci (now Poljanska); the fifteenth-century (possibly earlier) convent of the Austin hermits (repopulated by the Franciscans in the later 16th century) in Velika; the early thirteenth-century Cistercian monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kutjevo (Gotó, Honesta Vallis); the late twelfth-century collegiate chapter of Saint Peter in Kaptol (Pozsegaszentpéter); the parish church of Saint Michael in Stražemlje (now Stražeman); the parish church of the Virgin Mary in Velika; and two medieval churches of unknown original function which are not mentioned in medieval written sources: Saint Catharine in Podgorje and Saints Cosmas and Damian in Vetovo (both firstly mentioned in the mid-seventeenth century). The related buildings partly survive in Velika (monastery), Kaptol, Stražeman and Podgorje, while in Poljanska, Velika (parish church) Kutjevo and Vetovo they only left archaeological traces, at best.

The Antiphonary of Bangor was a book used in the liturgy of hours at the Abbey of Bangor. It contains canticles, hymns, prayers, and liturgical responses (thus, the name "Antiphonary"). It is a valuable book in the insights it gives on ancient Celtic Christian worship and theology. Some of the prayers can be used in today's Christian worship.

Questo contributo rielabora i dati di una ricerca affrontata in sede di tesi di laurea con tema la viabilità medievale di un’area montana campione, corrispondente alle attuali Giudicarie Esteriori nel Trentino occidentale. Plurime le informazioni utilizzate, dirette e indirette: geomorfologia dei luoghi, rinvenimenti archeologici, testimonianze storiche e materiali del popolamento premoderno, toponomastica e fonti d’archivio, queste ultime in verità non particolarmente abbondanti con riferimento al tema affrontato. Tramite queste fonti si è cercato di identificare e di fissare alcuni itinerari storici a valenza interlocale, cercando per ciascuno di essi di comprenderne le ragioni, l’intensità e la durata della frequentazione, oppure le variazioni e il fallimento nel quadro di variazioni e dell’ammodernamento ottocentesco della viabilità che ha adeguato, ma anche fortemente modificato, tracciati e ambiti con soluzioni di percorso più consone alle aspettative e alle nuove esigenze.

The medieval city of Caransebeș was documented for the first time during the reign of Ladislaus IV the Cuman, more precisely in 1290
(under the name Sebeș). The first castellan was mentioned during King Charles I of Hungary in 1584. The Italian, G. P. Campani, mentions
that Lugoj and Caransebeș are located in Wallachia and underlined the Wallachian features of the area. In 1658, Caransebeș fell under
the Ottoman domination and two years later, in 1660, it was visited by Evliya Çelebi. It was freed by general Veterani in 1688 , during the reign of the Emperor Leopold I. Two cemeteries from 11–12th centuries (Caransebeș–Centru and Măhala) with byzantine
grave goods, but very probably without related churches, were discovered here. In the 14th century the Franciscan monastery was
mentioned. Another cemetery is identified in the central part of the town (14–16/17–18th centuries). Two churches/mosques, probably
with necropolises, were observed on the map dated to the end of the 17th century. On the map dated to the year 1689, another church
was drawn, within a small fortification. From the second half of the 18th century, we have information about four other cemeteries with
churches (Catholic and Orthodox).

In medieval England it was customary to fold a coin when calling on a saint for support. The coin then served to confirm the promise to offer the coin as soon as the saint had given the support. It was also only this coin (and no other) that had to be brought to the place where the saint in question was worshiped. The bent coin had to be sacrificed there.
We know from the miracle book of 's-Hertogenbosch that the practice also occurred on the continent. On October 20, 1383, the story of a difficult birth was recorded, where Mary used her influence after a coin was folded and brought to her statue in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
In Dutch sources, the folding of coins is only known from this case. However, this does not necessarily mean that it has only been limited to this single event. It may have been so common that it was not considered necessary to state explicitly that it was a folded coin was offered.
It is clear that folding a coin also occurred in the Netherlands. It remains unknown whether this happened on a large scale. Despite the lack of written information on that, this is certainly not to be excluded. It would not surprise if the clerics themselves unfolded the coins and put them back into circulation.
With this article I therefore argue in favor of paying more attention to folded coins. There may be hidden more behind a folded coin than we think. My plea is therefore very emphatic not to unfold bent coins. Leave them in the state in which they were found. Then future research may be able to reveal the traces of medieval paranormal medicine even better.

The area around the north end of the medieval London Bridge in the City of London has attracted much archaeological attention. This article summarises the main findings for the period 1100-1666 from four excavations, recently published. In doing so, it explores a number of key issues: the main characteristics of this waterfront area in the medieval and Tudor periods; the sources of the pottery and artefacts incorporated into reclamation units, and any significance in their locations behind waterfront revetments or on the foreshore; what the medieval and post-medieval artefacts say about culture, fashion and religious beliefs; the functions of the buildings and open areas, and to what extent these can be linked to owners or occupiers specified in the documentary record; and how the port of London fits within its European trading network. The article also examines if and to what extent the area south of Thames Street was an industrial suburb of the medieval City. Here also lay the parish church of St Botolph Billingsgate, destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 and not rebuilt, many details of which can be reconstructed from archaeology and rich documentary evidence. Sixty-nine human burials in the church include one of a man in his sixties who may be John Reynewell, mayor of London in 1426-7. The several thousand artefacts and several hundred kilos of English and foreign pottery (the latter now analysed into over 100 separate wares) from the four sites in the study deserve further research by scholars, who can use this article as a stepping stone into the archive held at the Museum of London.

Il contributo prende in esame la fondazione di monasteri e chiese nel territorio bolognese per opera di esponenti dell'aristocrazia rurale e urbana. L'unico esempio documentato di Eigenkloster è il cenobio di S. Bartolomeo di Musiano, istituito dai cosiddetti conti di Bologna. Più diffuse risultano le attestazioni documentarie relative a forme di controllo, patronato e avocazia esercitate su chiese e monasteri preesistenti o riguardanti tentativi di controllarli da parte delle élite.

This paper considers the evidence for placed deposits in later medieval Christian contexts, focusing particularly on parish and monastic churches.  My aim is to consider placed deposits within the contextual framework of Christian ritual, to trace patterns in the types of object deposited in churches and to begin to establish frameworks of reference in which they may be understood.  These practices are not recorded in medieval documents and have therefore fallen outside the orbit of historical scholarship on popular religion and magic.

The question of the co-location of different kinds of assembly, such as Old Norse things, churches, games and markets, is a familiar debate in archaeology and history. A close connection between thing and church sites is recognised in Scandinavia suggesting that law and religion were closely connected. While the location of different assemblies seems to have been determined by logistical practicalities and the choice of certain kinds of topographic feature, power relations may also have played a crucial part in dictating their setting. After the eleventh/twelfth centuries in Norway, royal regulation of things and markets increased. The locations of many types of gathering remained consistent, however, but the thing system in particular seems to have offered a mechanism for consolidating royal power.

The owners of the Bojnice Castle estate Albert, Emeric and Onofrio, sons of John Noffry and Margaret of Drienčany, founded the Altary of St. Anthony the Great in Bojnice in 1479 in honor of Saint Anthony the Great, presumably as a votive offering in order to recover from ergotism, which they probably succumbed to over the following five years. By giving a homestead of a late townsman James Pavilovský, located in the town of Bojnice, to the Chapel of Anthony the Great, which they had built on the outer south side of the St. Martin’s Parish Church in Bojnice, they established the first pious foundation on 24 February 1479. It ought to have been covering the expenses to meet their religious intentions, mainly to hold church services. Four months later, they enlarged the foundation by giving the altary the village of Lazany, which they had excluded from the Bojnice Castle estate. King Matthias Corvinus confirmed their donation in 1484. Between 1485 and 1490, he provided the altary with the village of Kanianka from among the possessions of the Bojnice castle estate, which was royal at the time. The first known altarista (alias rector) was a parson of Oslany Peter, who was a son of Simon Palec, a townsman of Bojnice. Peter is first mentioned as a chapel’s rector in 1484. When he was invested with the office of the parson of Bojnice four years later, the positions of an altarista and a parson of Bojnice were united in the hands of a single person. By a royal patronage law, King Matthias Corvinus ex officio merged the rectorate of the Anthony the Great’s Chapel with the rectorate of the St. Martin’s Parish Church in Bojnice in 1489. Except a temporary lapse in the middle of the 1500s to 1640, when influenced by spreading reformation ideas, contemporary owners of the Bojnice Castle estate appropriated the altary’s possessions; the altary lasted until the regime change in the middle of the 20th century. The last person to hold a title of altarista of Bojnice was Lukáš Petráš, who served as a parson of Bojnice from 1938 to 1961.

'Lost Interiors' is a much expanded, updated and annotated edition of the 1970 Rhind Lectures of David McRoberts on the interior furnishings of Scottish medieval churches. It was published in 2012 by the Aquhorthies Press and in 2013 in a lightly revised edition by the SCHA Press. The latter is given here. It is currently out of print and hard to find so the full text is given here for the use of scholars and all interested in the Scottish Church.

The submitted article presents results of the archaeological and architectonic-historical investigation of the Church of
St. Martin in Hontianska Vrbica, Levice district. The beginnings of the church had been dated to the 15th century. The
archaeological investigation and architectonic-historical analysis of uncovered architecture moved the date of its origin to the late 12th – early 13th century. Remains of an extinct Romanesque church with a three-quarter-cylindrical apse
and its younger early-Gothic addition in the south have been identified there. Thanks to the investigations, we have
obtained new information on the structural development of the church in the high Gothic, late Gothic and Baroque
periods. The contribution analyzes 17 burials from the adjacent uncovered church cemetery and their finds. Special
attention is paid to two Baroque tombs discovered inside the church. We obtained well preserved remains of Baroque
male clothes of a so-far unknown local thane from one of the tombs

Archaeological researches at the medieval church of Ulieş (2005-2006)
During the archeological researches made between 2005-2006 on the area of the “Old Church” in Kányád (r. Ulieş, Harghita county, Romania), the remaining’s of the medieval and postmedieval church of the villages Kányád and Jásfalva (r. Iaşu) have been found. The archeological excavations spread over three sections: the south-eastern surface of the church, the surface of the sanctuary and the nave, and a small portion of the cemetery wall in the western part. The medieval church of the two villages had at least 5-6 building periods. The first two sanctuaries had absides with semicircular closing, built in the second part of the 12th and the first part of the 14th century. Before the Gothic transformation, which dates from after 1465, in the southern part of the semicircular abside a sacristy was built. The nave of the Romanesque church arched during the Gothic transformation existed until the demolishing of the old church (end of the 18th century).
Along the archeological researches 56 graves came to surface, most of them from the Middle Ages. The silver and bronze “hair-rings” with S endings belong to the early graves of the Arpadian church. The coins from the age of Sigismund Luxemburg (parvus) and of Mathias Corvin (denar) date indirectly two phases of the church-building. The carved stones which belong to the Romanesque and Gothic phases of the church (pieces of door and window frames, arch-ribbings), respectively the fresco pieces provide a clear image of the medieval church.

This essay focuses on the lost church of Santa Croce a Villa Madama in Rome, often mentioned by scholars but yet unknown in its ichnographic features. A series of hitherto unpublished drawings from the collection of the art historian Jean-Baptiste Seroux d'Agincourt, housed in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, allows reconstructing the original aspect of the building, formerly a roman cistern.

Early Gotlandic crucifixes and later crucifixes with rings

Macedonian art (843-1056), sometimes called the Macedonian Renaissance, was a period in Byzantine art which began in the period following the death of Emperor Theophilus in 842 and the lifting of the ban on icons (iconoclasm).
Macedonian art featured classical styles in beautiful floor mosaics, ornate ivory sculptures and more realistic paintings of people. It got its name from Basil I who founded the Macedonian dynasty that ruled until 1056. He was married to the Gotlandic Varangina Ingr’s daughter Eudokia Indrina.
It coincided with the Ottonian Renaissance in Western Europe. The Ottonian Renaissance was a limited “renaissance” of Byzantine and Late Antique art in Central and Southern Europe that accompanied the reigns of the first three Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian (or Saxon) dynasty: Otto I (936–973), Otto II (973–983), and Otto III (983–1002), and which in large part depended upon their patronage. In the 800s and 900s the military situation in the Byzantine Empire improved, and art and architecture revived. New churches were again commissioned, and the Byzantine church mosaic style became standard. The best preserved examples are at the Hosios Loukas Monastery in mainland Greece and the Nea Moni Katholikon on the island of Chios. The frescoes at Castelseprio in Italy are by many art historians also linked to the art of Constantinople of the period. There was a revival of interest in classical themes, of which the Paris Psalter is an important testimony, and more sophisticated techniques were used to depict human figures.
Although monumental sculpture is extremely rare in Byzantine art, the Macedonian period saw the unprecedented flourishing of the art of ivory sculpture. Many ornate ivory triptychs and diptychs survive, with the central panel often representing either deesis, as in the Harbaville Triptych, the Crucified Christ in the Borradaile Triptych or the Theotokos as in a triptych at Luton Hoo, dating to the reign of Nicephorus Phocas (963-969). On the other hand ivory caskets, notably the Veroli Casket from Victoria and Albert Museum, often feature secular motifs true to the Hellenistic tradition, thus testifying to an undercurrent of classical taste in Byzantine art.
In Byzantine Orthodoxy Christ has open eyes since around the end of the period of Byzantine Iconoclasm. So has also Christ on Gotlandic crucifixes.
Sacred imagery from both the Scriptures and holy tradition fill this iconographic Byzantine Crucifix.
Eastern crucifixes first had a straight Jesus’ body with two feet nailed side by side rather than over each other. His feet are parallel to each other on a wooden support (Four nail type) and not one on top of the other (Three nail type). On his feet he wears shoes as a sign of ruler. The crucified Christ was presented as ruler and judge. He is victorious over death. The crown of thorns is also absent in Eastern crucifixes, since the emphasis is not on Christ’s suffering, but on his triumph over sin and death. Instead of a crown of thorns he wears a royal crown or a halo. The loincloth is highly stylized and falls in vertical folds.
Such early crucifixes we find in Gotland i.a. in Björke, Stenkumla, Linde, Hall and  Mästerby churches and by Hegwalder’s workshop

Gotland’s monumental medieval wooden crucifixes with rings or discs
These crosses, whose placing within the church space was determined by their sacramental function connected with the celebration of the Eucharist, combine tropaeic- doxological thinking with eschatological ideas. These crosses with a ring or a disc are an expression of the dogma of Trinitarian perichoresis. The ring or wheel cross has its origins in early Christian art. There is evidence to suggest that this iconographic formula is associated with the votive cross or Crux Gemmata from Golgotha.