Conference organised by EPHE-PSL, Paris (Équipe HISTARA), Museo Ebraico di Roma, Università di Jaén

This project is developed around the study of the architectural typologies of the three main monotheistic religions and, instead of considering them as isolated phenomena as it has been generally done until now, proposes to analyze the exchanges, contaminations, adoption of ancient prototypes and the painful and sacrilegious processes of adaptation to the new cult. Particular attention is paid to the methods of restoration, or renovation of religious buildings no longer in use or looted, a widespread practice that generally coincides with low-cost interventions consisting of removing and replacing the images, as well as changing the ornaments and possibly the furniture. In order to investigate this aspect it is necessary to highlight its trauma and subsequently to remember the desecration of religious buildings carried out over the centuries to adapt them to the religious needs of the dominant power, and therefore the distortion of some of their peculiar characteristics, and what was destroyed and what was maintained.

Questo progetto si sviluppa intorno allo studio delle tipologie architettoniche delle tre principali religioni monoteiste e propone di non considerarle come fenomeni isolati, come è stato generalmente fatto fino ad ora, ma di analizzarne gli scambi, le contaminazioni, l’adozione di antichi prototipi e i dolorosi e sacrileghi processi di adattamento al nuovo culto. Viene prestata particolare attenzione alle metodologie di restauro, o di ripristino di edifici religiosi non più in uso o depredati, una pratica diffusa che coincide generalmente con interventi a basso costo consistenti nel rimuovere e sostituire le immagini, oltre a cambiare gli ornamenti ed eventualmente l'arredamento. Per studiare questo aspetto è necessario evidenziarne il trauma e quindi ricordare la profanazione degli edifici religiosi compiuta nei secoli per adattarli alle esigenze religiose del potere dominante, e quindi lo snaturamento di alcune loro caratteristiche peculiari, e quanto veniva distrutto e quanto mantenuto.

Curated by Sabine Frommel and Olga Melasecchi

Monday, April 4th, 2022 - Jewish Museum of Rome

3:00 PM Registration

  • 3:45 PM Institutional greetings: Rav Riccardo Shmuel Di Segni (Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Rome), Ruth Dureghello (President of the Jewish Community of Rome)
  • 4:00 PM Sabine Frommel (EPHE-PSL, Paris), Olga Melasecchi (Jewish Museum of Rome): Introduction
  • 4:15 PM Alessandro Saggioro (Università di Roma La Sapienza): Dalla “memoria” al “trauma”: il potere politico e la profanazione degli edifici religiosi (From "memory" to "trauma": the political power and the desecration of religious buildings)

5:00 PM Coffee break

  • 5:15 PM Sible de Blaauw (Radboud University di Nijmegen): Early Christian Basilicas and Ancient Synagogues: Interreligious Dynamics in Architecture for Worship
  • 6:00 PM Bianca Kühnel (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem): The orientation of Galilean synagogues, fourth to sixth centuries
  • 6:45 PM Sergio Amedeo Terracina (Jewish Community of Rome): Il Tempio Maggiore di Roma e le sue tipologie architettoniche di riferimento (The Great Synagogue of Rome and its architectural typologies of reference)

7:30 PM End of session

Tuesday, April 5th, 2022 - Biblioteca di Storia Moderna e Contemporanea

9:00 AM Registration

9:15 AM Institutional greetings: Patrizia Rusciani (Director of the Biblioteca di Storia Moderna e Contemoporanea, Rome)

  • 9:30 AM Andrea Morpurgo (Fondazione per i Beni Culturali Ebraici in Italia): La sinagoga in Italia dal medioevo all’emancipazione: una lunga storia di continuità tipologica, cambi di destinazione d'uso e strategie di rinnovamento stilistico-architettonico (The synagogue in Italy from the Middle Ages to emancipation: a long history of typological continuity, changes of intended use and strategies of stylistic-architectural renewal)
  • 10:15 AM Elie Abi Nassif (Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, Beyrouth, UOB, Université de Balamand): Tripoli-Liban-Nord, Patrimoine religieux complexe (Tripoli -Lebanon-North, complex religious heritage)

11:00 AM Coffeee Break

  • 11:15 AM Mattia Guidetti (Università di Bologna) / Yuri Alessandro Marano (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice): Lo stato giuridico delle sinagoghe sotto Bisanzio e delle chiese sotto l’Islam: Prospettive comparate durante la lunga Tarda Antichità (The legal status of synagogues under Byzantium and churches under Islam: compared perspectives during the long Late Antiquity)
  • 12:00 AM Ioanna Rapti (EPHE-PSL, Paris): Memory, property and shrines between Christians and Muslims in 13th century Armenia: evidence from ornament and inscriptions

12:45 AM Lunch break

  • 2:00 PM Pedro Galera Andreu (University of Jaén): Contaminaciones formales en la arquitectura de las sinagogas, catedrales y mezquitas en la España bajomedieval (Formal contamination in the architecture of synagogues, cathedrals and mosques in late medieval Spain)
  • 2:45 PM Luis Rueda Galan (University of Jaén): Maria del Mihrāb: Riflessioni su arte e devozioni interreligiose nel Mediterraneo medievale (Mary of the Miḥrāb: reflections on interreligious art and devotions in the medieval Mediterranean)
  • 3:30 PM Felipe Serrano Estrella (University of Jaén): Cattedrali e reliquie in Spagna nell´età moderna (Cathedrals and relics in Spain in the Modern Age)

4:15 PM Coffee break

  • 4:30 PM Gianmario Guidarelli (Università di Padova): Cinque sinagoghe e una moschea: spazi cultuali non cristiani nella Venezia di Età Moderna (Five synagogues and a mosque: non-Christian cultual spaces in the Modern Age Venice)
  • 5:15 PM Mathieu Lours (EPHE-PSL-Paris): Jean-Baptiste Séroux d'Agincourt et la naissance de l'architecture gothique: un nouveau regard vers l'architecture religieuse islamique au siècle des Lumières (Jean-Baptiste Séroux d'Agincourt and the emergence of gothic architecture: a new perspective on religious Islamic architecture during the Enlightenment)
  • 6:00 PM Alexander von Kienlin (Technische Universität München): Synagogues of the Jewish "Reform movements" from the late 18th century

6:45 PM General discussion and perspectives

The Conference will take place in mixed mode and will be streamed live on the Facebook page of the Jewish Museum of Rome