scholarly journals Il castello dei conti di Biandrate: indagini sulle strutture superstiti

X ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianca Guiso ◽  
Maria Vittoria Tappari

Castello dei Conti di Biandrate: surveys on the surviving structureBiandrate is a northern Italian village in the province of Novara that lies in the Po plain between the Sesia and Ticino rivers. Border area disputed between Vercelli and Novara, since the early Middle Ages it represented an important crossing point because there were the fords of the Sesia river nearby, on the road axis joining Novara and Ivrea. Its importance grew in the tenth century, when the Pieve was erected, today disappeared, dedicated to Santa Maria and, in 1029, the Counts of Pombia family settled in the Biandrate castrum. In 1168 the castrum was destroyed by the armies of Milan, allied with Novara and Vercelli, that in 1194 carved up the territory. In the second half of the thirteenth century the village of Biandrate was divided into the Borgo Vecchio, vercellese, to the west, and the Borgo Nuovo, novarese, to the east. They developed around the canonica of S. Colombano, the hospital and the ruins of the Count’s castrum. The castrum, almost totally destroyed, continued to represent an area with particular rights: in fact the Statues established that the Podestà could pronounce sentences only “in castro veteri Blanderati”. Nowadays the collegiata of S. Colombano stands on the Biandrate castrum ruins; the collegiata was mentioned for the first time in 1146, but was altered various times over the centuries. In particular, portions of the ancient wall are visible in the lower part of the west wall of the church of Santa Caterina, incorporated within the complex of the collegiate of S. Colombano. It is noticed that the ancient castrum had very thick walls made primarily with river pebbles, roughly cut stones in a herringbone pattern and binding mortar.

Author(s):  
Marco Ruffilli

The Armenian prince Ašot II Bagratuni (685/686-688/689 d.C.) placed in the church he himself founded in the village of Daroynkʽ a Byzantine icon mentioned in the Armenian historical sources as an image of the «Incarnation of Christ», coming from «the West». The years of the principate of Ašot partly coincide with those of the first of the two reigns of Justinian II, the emperor who for the first time issued monetary coins with the image of Christ impressed, and presided in 692 d.C. the Quinisext Council ‘in Trullo’, whose canon no. LXXXII dealt with the representation of the Saviour’s body. The case of Ašot is an example of the worship of icons in the late 7th century Armenia, and contributes to witnes both the circulation of this kind of artifacts in the armenian territories, and the the impact of the contemporary reflections about the Incarnation of Christ and the sacred images; in agreement, moreover, with the condemnation of the iconoclastic theses expressed in the Armenian treatise attributed to Vrtʽanēs Kʽertʽoł.


Archaeologia ◽  
1909 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 553-564
Author(s):  
C. R. Peers

The village of Basing lies in the upper Loddon Valley a mile and a half east of Basingstoke on the south bank of the river, which rises some four miles to the east, near Worting, and here runs in a flat and marshy channel. At either end of the village is a mill, the Lower Mill at the west end and Old Basing Mill at the east, near the church. A third mill mentioned in Domesday does not now exist. The ground rises gently southwards, the road running through the village along the base of the slope, and at the east end of the village is higher ground on which the church stands. At the south-west, about 500 yards from the church, are the earthworks marking the site of Basing House, and commanding at the same time the road and the approach to the bridge over the Loddon. In early days, when the river probably ran through a wider belt of marshy ground than at present, the position must have been one of great strategic importance, and in fact it continued to be so down to the time of the destruction of the house in the Civil Wars. Its strength is also witnessed to by the fact that it resisted attack after attack by the soldiers of the Parliament, and was only taken at length when the Royalist power was broken, and Cromwell himself could give all his energies to its reduction.


Archaeologia ◽  
1930 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 117-142
Author(s):  
J. G. Mann

The Franciscan monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie is situated on the bank of the Mincio some five miles west of Mantua on the road to Cremona. My attention was first drawn to it by the late Baron de Cosson during a conversation in Florence in 1926, when he showed me a photograph of the interior of the church. He understood that the local tradition was that the statues were clad in armour taken from the battlefield of Marignano in 1515, and mentioned that there appeared to be some basis for this belief as the armour looked to to him genuine enough, so far as it was possible to see it from the floor of the church. ‘Rien n'est plus rare qu'une arinure ancienne’ The suggestion that there might be in existence a church full of armour dating from the early part of the sixteenth century, hitherto unrecorded, inspired a desire to visit the place at the first opportunity. I was unable to fulfil my intention that year, but two years later I was in the north of Italy again and was able to make the promised pilgrimage. The antiquary is well used to receiving specious accounts of treasures which on examination turn out to be utterly worthless. Perhaps objects associated with warlike exploits lend themselves even more commonly to exaggeration than most, and I was prepared to find that I had made a journey in vain. On my arrival a brother informed me that the armour on the statues was only of carta pesta and not worth looking at. But the first figure that I inspected showed that my hopes had been exceeded. Not only was much of the armour real, so far as one could tell through a coating of thick black paint overlaid with the dust of countless Italian summers, but its form was not that of the time of Marignano but of some fifty years earlier, when the art of the Italian armourer had reached its zenith. Last year I returned to the monastery and arranged to have a scaffold erected, and to have the seventeen figures which wear armour out of the total of sixty-seven photographed; for permission to do this I wish to record my gratitude to Monsignor Guarnieri and the Soprintendente di Belle Arti of.the district.


Antiquity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (356) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Everill ◽  
Besik Lortkipanidze ◽  
Nikoloz Murghulia ◽  
Ian Colvin ◽  
Davit Lomitashvili

The village of Khuntsi is located in the Martvili municipality of Samegrelo, western Georgia, on the west bank of the Tskhenistskali River, on the road that links Martvili, Khoni and Kutaisi. A few short sections of wall on Kukiti Hill (known locally as ‘Najikhu’, translating roughly from Mingrelian as ‘ruins (remains) of a castle’) indicate the presence of a fortress. Six years ago, the installation of a mobile phone mast and associated infrastructure without consultation with the appropriate archaeological agencies revealed and damaged archaeological structures. Animal bone and fragments of pottery were retrieved, and are currently stored in the school in Khuntsi. It was information from a local school teacher, Zoya Gadelia, that led the Anglo-Georgian Expedition to Nokalakevi to investigate the site in 2015.


2003 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-46
Author(s):  
A. D. M. Barrell

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-31
Author(s):  
Fabio Massaccesi

Abstract This contribution intends to draw attention to one of the most significant monuments of medieval Ravenna: the church of Santa Maria in Porto Fuori, which was destroyed during the Second World War. Until now, scholars have focused on the pictorial cycle known through photographs and attributed to the painter Pietro da Rimini. However, the architecture of the building has not been the subject of systematic studies. For the first time, this essay reconstructs the fourteenth-century architectural structure of the church, the apse of which was rebuilt by 1314. The data that led to the virtual restitution of the choir and the related rood screen are the basis for new reflections on the accesses to the apse area, on the pilgrimage flows, and on the view of the frescoes.


1985 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 93-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Hill

The ruins at Yanıkhan form the remains of a Late Roman village in the interior of Rough Cilicia some 8 kilometres inland from the village of Limonlu on the road to Canbazlı (see Fig. 1). The site has not been frequently visited by scholars, and the first certain reference to its existence was made by the late Professor Michael Gough after his visit on 2 September 1959. Yanıkhan is now occupied only by the Yürüks who for years have wintered on the southern slopes of Sandal Dağ. The ancient settlement at Yanıkhan consisted of a village covering several acres. The remains are still extensive, and some, especially the North Basilica, are very well preserved, but there has been considerable disturbance in recent years as stone and rubble have been removed in order to create small arable clearings. The visible remains include many domestic buildings constructed both from polygonal masonry without mortar and from mortar and rubble with coursed smallstone facing. There are several underground cisterns and a range of olive presses. The countryside around the settlement has been terraced for agricultural purposes in antiquity, and is, like the settlement itself, densely covered with scrub oak and wild olive trees. The most impressive remains are those of the two basilical churches which are of little artistic pretension, but considerable architectural interest. The inscription which forms the substance of this article was found on the lintel block of the main west entrance of the South Basilica.


1991 ◽  
Vol 7 (28) ◽  
pp. 315-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Schechner

This is a personal record of a theatre worker's journey to places where theatre is inextricably mixed with politics — or is no less significantly divorced from social concerns. Visiting mainland China and South Africa in the summer of 1990, Richard Schechner records how theatre people confronted the aftermath of major political upheavals – the crushing of hopes in Tiananmen Square, and the perhaps deceptive raising of them following the release of Nelson Mandela. His trip also took in the widely different perspectives and problems of Taiwan, where pluralism struggles (almost unnoticed in the West) to displace an ageing autocracy. Richard Schechner teaches at New York University, and recently returned to the editorial chair at The Drama Review, the journal he conducted through its vintage years in the 'sixties – at the same time creating the Performance Group, and beginning his researches into theatre and anthropology, the field in which he has published widely and innovatively in the interim.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gading Kencono Aji ◽  
Sylvira Ananda ◽  
Tri Mulyono

This research was conducted to assess the Level Of Service (LOS) pedestrian path around the Tanjung Barat Station area. In addition, to see in terms of comfort and security in reaching a TOD concept area. For this reason, a model of pedestrian design is needed so that track users can enjoy the pedestrian pathway feeling comfortable and safe. The results of this study indicate that the level of pedestrian service on the Tanjung Barat Raya road and on the road in Lenteng Agung raya: For the Tanjung Barat Raya road the LOS index is categorized as "B" while the Lenteng Agung Raya road is in the LOS index in the "C" category. And for the prediction of the next 5 years, LOS is categorized as "B". This indicates the need for improvements in terms of supporting facilities for pedestrians on the two St. Western Cape. This indicates that the pedestrian support facilities need to be improved which will have an impact on the increasing number of pedestrian users around the West Tanjung station for the next 5 years.  


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 903-909 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Chelli ◽  
G. Mandrone ◽  
A. Ruffini ◽  
G. Truffelli

Abstract. In the Northern Apennines there are many historical villages and castles, which are of great value and represent a cultural heritage of great importance. Their presence within a territory greatly affected by landslide hazards creates, in many circumstances, the need to solve problems of land management and to act for the preservation of historical monuments. This paper describe an interesting landslide, failed during the night of 28 February 2004, that involved the village of Rossena: the failure damaged the village (Fig. 1), the road and the fields down to the stream but, fortunately, the castle just upslope the village was not involved at all. The 10th century massive castle of Rossena stands on the top of a cliff at about 500 m a.s.l., on the border between the provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia, and it is surrounded by a small ancient village. The castle of Rossena is the best preserved stronghold of the Longobard times, enlarged and reinforced in the tenth century and partially rebuilt by Bonifacio, the father of Matilda of Canossa (the Vice-Queen of Italy and probably the most important woman in the Middle Ages) as a defensive structure guarding the Enza Valley. In addition, at Conossa, very close to Rossena, there was the meeting between Pope Gregory VII and the Emperor of Germany Henry IV, during the historical event known as "fight for the investitures". For these reasons, the area of Rossena is one of the most relevant from a historical point of view in the entire western part of the Emilia Romagna Region and it also has a high value as a geosite (Coratza et al., 2004).  


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