Undergraduate Course: The Spaces and Architecture of Pilgrimage (ARHI10049)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | During the Middle Ages, pilgrimage became an immensely popular way of achieving spiritual aims and travelling, giving way to a lucrative industry. This course examines spaces, buildings and objects, which were required to attract and satisfy the demands of audiences embarking on both physical and intellectual pilgrimages. Topics addressed will focus primarily on western sites of the medieval and early modern periods, incorporating theoretical frameworks such as phenomenology, performativity, semiotics, and translation and mobility theories. |
| Course description |
This course embraces an interdisciplinary examination of pilgrimage architecture, encouraging students to consider spaces and structures alongside discussions of art, literature and conservation, among other disciplines. The first half of the course examines the architecture of major western pilgrimage routes, introducing significant buildings, considering the role of landscape in architectural design and suggesting how structures were developed to convey meaning, facilitate rituals, and enhance the pilgrim experience. The second half of the course sets pilgrimage within broader contexts, considering topics such as how images of architecture facilitated intellectual pilgrimage and education, the cross-cultural dimensions of pilgrimage architecture outside of Christendom and the preservation and conservation requirements of sites today.
Students will be introduced to key buildings, texts and theories in weekly seminars and tutorials. Visits to local institutions, such as the National Library of Scotland and the National Museum of Scotland, as well as a class trip to re-trace a pilgrimage route will offer different ways of engaging with the material presented in class.
Topics covered may vary but are likely to include:
- Introduction to the places and spaces of pilgrimage
- The journey to Jerusalem
- Roman Pilgrimage
- Architecture along the Camino de Santiago
- Pilgrimage in Britain:
- Class Pilgrimage (Holy Isle, St Andrews, e.g.)
- The landscape of pilgrimage: maps, travel guides and architectural representations
- Intellectual pilgrimage: architectural representations in manuscripts
- Beyond Christendom: Shrines, temples and other holy places
- Pilgrimage Sites Today
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the symbolic and functional significance of architecture along the major western pilgrimage routes.
- Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the importance of pilgrimage within medieval and early modern cultures.
- Demonstrate a strong understanding of how landscape, space and orientation contribute meaning to architecture.
- Demonstrate an understanding of how theories and approaches to architecture can be applied across disciplines.
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Reading List
Blick, Sarah and Rite Tekippe. Art and architecture of late medieval pilgrimage in northern Europe and the British Isles (Leiden, Brill, 2005).
Davies, Paul, Deborah Howard and Wendy Pullan. Architecture and Pilgrimage, 1000-1500: Southern Europe and Beyond (Routledge, 2013).
Sumption, Jonathan. The age of pilgrimage: the medieval journey to God (Hiddenspring, 2003).
Swatos, William H. and Luigi Tomasi, eds. From medieval pilgrimage to religious tourism: the social and cultural economics of piety (London: Praeger, 2002).
Webb, Diana. Medieval European pilgrimage, c. 700-c. 1500 (Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2003).
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. Ability to critically analyse structures and sources
2. Enhanced research and writing skills
3. Object/manuscript handling experience
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| Keywords | Pilgrimage,Medieval Architecture,Early Modern Architecture |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Emily Goetsch
Tel:
Email: egoetsch@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Ellie Wallace
Tel: (0131 6)50 2309
Email: Ellie.Wallace@ed.ac.uk |
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