On Memory, Transmission and the Practice of Building in the Crusader Mediterranean

Memory played a key role in the cross-cultural transmission of medieval architectural knowledge amongst patrons, designers, ateliers and audiences from different religious, cultural and architectural traditions. Two aspects of architectural memory are here posited as playing a role in the dissemination of architectural forms and styles: a “cultural memory” that evoked specific, earlier sites of ideological or other significance to patrons; and a “pragmatic memory” of learned, practical skills that was transmitted amongst masons themselves. These interlocking yet distinct aspects of memory in architecture are not unique to cross-cultural transmission, but they had particular impact when deployed by patrons and masons across physical or conceptual borders. Whether introduced by practical means or for associative reasons, new forms further moved across regions with artisans, who proffered (and learned) new modes of working while traveling. Examination of the Cistercian Monastery of Zaraka in Stymphalia, Greece and other churches of the thirteenth-century, post-Crusade Peloponnese and greater Eastern Mediterranean demonstrate how both aspects of architectural memory can be read in the physical architectural record. This methodology also re-inscribes masons into a history of the cross-cultural creative process, showing that builders were vital in the processes of transmitting and interpreting forms.