Seminar organized by the Department of Archaeology in collaboration with the Department of History.<\/p>\n
Date: 10 December 2025, Wednesday
\nTime: 17.30
\nAvenue: FFB-05<\/p>\n
Title: \u201cMonumentality: from real constructions to their cultural understanding\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaker: Maria Cristina Carile, University of Bologna<\/p>\n
Abstract:
\nSince Late Antiquity, the architecture of Roman and Byzantine cities was characterized by a distinct grandeur, expressed in built spaces populated with large-scale structures and massive use of precious and durable materials. Across the Empire, this phenomenon continued in diverse and sometimes more nuanced forms, reflecting broader developments in architecture and building practices throughout the history of Byzantium. Considering buildings both as individual entities and as components of the broader urban fabric, such grandeur can undoubtedly be conceptualized as monumentality.
\nYet several questions arise. Was monumentality an intentional feature of Byzantine architecture \u2014 and of Byzantine cities more broadly? Or is our contemporary perception of Byzantine architecture as inherently monumental a largely modern construct, shaped by the interpretive frameworks and aesthetic expe
\nctations of scholars? Moreover, can an entire city itself be regarded as monumental?
\nThis paper examines the concept of Byzantine monumentality by considering buildings and urban spaces that had a long-lasting impact on the formation of Byzantine \u2014 and even contemporary \u2014 built environments. These constructions also generated cultural frameworks of understanding that, as this paper will argue, may not have been typical of Byzantine sensibilities but nevertheless came to weigh heavily on architectural perception \u2014 on the \u201cByzantine eye,\u201d so to speak. Beginning with the Byzantine city, the paper then turns to buildings and even micro-architectures, in order to reassess a central concept that centuries of scholarship have applied to Byzantine architecture: its widely accepted monumentality.<\/p>\n
Bio:<\/p>\n
Maria Cristina Carile is a Byzantinist with specialization in art history and archaeology. From November 2018 she holds the position of Associate Professor of History of Byzantine Art (L-ART\/01 History of Medieval Art) at the Department of Cultural Heritage of the University of Bologna. Her methodology is characterized by the joined study of material and visual sources and texts. At the moment her research is dedicated to artistic culture and the circulation of visual communication codes in Late Antique and Byzantine Mediterranean, and particularly in the Adriatic and Aegean Sea. She has presented her research at national and international conferences, scientific lectures and seminars and extensively published book, articled, and book contributions on her research themes (https:\/\/www.unibo.it\/sitoweb\/mariacristina.carile\/publications<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seminar organized by the Department of Archaeology in collaboration with the Department of History. Date: 10 December 2025, Wednesday Time: 17.30 Avenue: FFB-05 Title: \u201cMonumentality: from real constructions to their cultural understanding\u201d Speaker: Maria Cristina Carile, University of Bologna Abstract: Since Late Antiquity, the architecture of Roman and Byzantine cities [\u2026] <\/p>\n