medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
"John B. Dillon" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Plus, the spot may have been rather less isolated in the eleventh
century.
certainly another factor at work.
quite a few places now thought of as obscure were much more important
--sometimes *very* important-- in other times, enjoying perhaps "a moment of
fame" before going to sleep for centuries.
my favorite example is Etampes, between Paris & Orleans, Chartres and Sens.
when i first went there in '67 it was just a sleepy little town with a rather
large and *very* interesting church (and three or four others in town), the
ruins of a once reasonably spectacular royal castle on the hill above :
http://centrechartraine.freeservers.com/etampes/et-town1.jpg
why would this place have such a rich artistic and historical heritage?
turns out, of course, that it was a major, strategic royal stonghold during
the time when the Capetien dynasty was on the ropes, in the eleventh and early
12th cc.
by the reign of Philip Augustus its moment had mostly passed, but it was still
firmly enough in the king's hands to be chosen as the place where he kept the
hapless Queen Ingeborg locked up until she changed her mind about allowing an
annulment (she didn't).
since the R.E.R. line was extended down there in the late 70s Etampes has
become a bedroom suburb of Paris, so it is making a "come back".
Berze-la-Ville is another example, on a much smaller scale --really just a
farmstead (until the frescos were discovered) for centuries, but important
enough to the early 12th c. abbots of Cluny to warrant some pretty fancy wall
paintings.
> There may also be some prudential misdirection at work here. We don't know
how isolated the undisclosed spot really is.
good point.
c
"Lots of useless other data points just enlarge the consciousness of the
agrieved showing how particular the pain is."
--Burma Shave
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