Crossing Rivers in Byzantium and Beyond, University of Vienna, November 2–3, 2018
This workshop is organized as part of the project “Byzantine Stone Bridges: Material Evidence and Cultural Meaning,” managed by Dr. Galina Fingarova at the Department of Art History of the University of Vienna. It is generously funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Elise-Richter-Program.
The project focuses on a long-overlooked aspect of architectural and cultural history – Byzantine stone bridges. It investigates the particularities of this type of architectural monuments built from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries on territories under imperial Byzantine rule.
The workshop will expand on the project’s research questions and methodological approaches by placing these in a broader context. It encourages an interdisciplinary discourse on the unique characteristic of rivers to define territories and boundaries and on their crossing as a means of connection in a real and figurative sense. It seeks to transcend both the territorial and chronological limits of the Byzantine Empire.