The Crossroads of Empires Project- A rediscovery of the Lombard Church of Sant’Ambrogio, Online lecture

 Registration is closed for this event
Lecture held in collaboration with Europa Nostra UK.

4-5pm Thursday 6th August 2020

Free online lecture via Crowdcast in collaboration with Europa Nostra UK

Join us for this free online webinar to hear about the recent Europa Nostra Awards/European Heritage Award Special Mentions Research project.

About the Project:

The Crossroads of Empires Project is a research collaboration between Dr Daniel Reynolds (Birmingham), Prof.ssa Francesca Dell'Acqua, (Università di Salerno) and Prof.ssa Chiara Lambert (Università di Salerno), Prof. Alessandro di Muro (Università di Basilicata), and a number of higher education institutions across the UK, Italy and the Czech Republic. The project draws together over a decade of research at San Michele and the recent archaeological and spectroscopic research at Sant’Ambrogio (2017-2020), aims to raise academic and public awareness of these two important early medieval sites and to create a sustainable heritage management plan in  collaboration with the local authorities. 

Daniel is co-director of the “Crossroads of Empires Project”, which focuses on two ninth-century Lombard sites in the Provinicia di Salerno: the Lombard church of Sant’Ambrogio, Montecorvino Rovella and the nearby site of San Michele sul Tusciano in Olevano.

The church of Sant’Ambrogio was re-discovered in the 1970s under overgrown vegetation and is one of the most complete surviving examples of Lombard church architecture. The building, which was active until the sixteenth century, also preserves much of its original fresco work, including one of Western Europe’s oldest depictions of the Virgin Mary as the ‘Mother of God’.

San Michele sul Tusciano in Olevano, situated 10 km away from Sant’Ambrogio, is a uniquely preserved example of an early medieval cave shrine. Known to medieval writers by the ninth century as ‘Monte Aureus’, the complex is constructed in a natural cave below the summit of Monte Raione. Within the cave are the remains of several frescoed cave chapels, a ‘hostel’ and a processional way, designed to facilitate the movement of pilgrims around the cave.

About the speaker:

Dr Daniel Reynolds is Lecturer in Byzantine History at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on the social and economic history of Byzantium in the period c.300-c.1100, with particular interests in Byzantine and early Islamic Syria, Israel/Palestine, Jordan and southern Italy. Daniel’s publications have addressed iconoclasm in the Mediterranean c.700-c.900 as well as questions of identity in Byzantine and post-Byzantine provincial contexts (c.500-c.1100), and peasant communities in the East Mediterranean.

Booking Terms & Conditions

IT requirements: Please note that this is an online lecture and will be held via a webinar platform called CrowdCast. You will be sent instructions on how to join the lecture when you book. To participate, all you need is an internet connection, and a laptop, computer or phone with the ability to play video and audio. On android mobiles/tablets, sessions can be accessed via either Chrome for Android or Firefox for Android. Apple mobile/tablet users will need to download the CrowdCast app.

If you'd like to test your internet speed meets requirements before booking, please use this page on the CrowdCast website.

When
6th August 2020 from  4:00 PM to  5:00 PM