The City as a ‘River of Fire’: Religious Processions in Tenth-century Constantinople, lecture by Vicky Manolopoulou, Princeton University, November 18, 2019, 4:30–6:00 pm

Respondent: Teresa Shawcross, History and Hellenic Studies

The supplicatory processions that took place in Constantinople in both times of danger and joy and on their annual commemoration, transformed the entire landscape into a church. This lecture will explore the spatiotemporal attributes of this practice by examining evidence drawn from art, text and archaeology, using digital tools, methods of analysis and visualization. It will show how the commemorative processions of tenth-century Constantinople shaped the identity of the City by providing a vehicle for the preservation and accessing of social memory.

Vicky Manolopoulou specializes in the History and Archaeology of Byzantine landscapes.