Locating the festival, positioning the feast: natural and calendar festivals in medieval Slovenia (original) (raw)

Astronomical Alignments of Paleo-Christian Basilicas in Romania

2017

In this paper we present the first comprehensive study of the alignments of paleo-Christian basilicas in present day Romania. 20 basilicas from 11 sites are investigated using a digital compass and tools such as Google Earth, Stellarium, and heywhatsthat.com. Results show that except two all fall within the solar sunrise arc. Of these some point to the rising Sun during the feast days of well-known Christian saints. The two exceptions at Argamum and Dinogeția indicate that they may have been built on existing buildings that were later converted to basilicas. The astronomical alignment in these two cases indicates a possible pagan influence in the orientation of the initial buildings. The two basilicas possibly align with the sunrise during the major lunar standstill and the rising of Arcturus, Castor, Mirach, and Algiebe.

DE QUATTUOR PARTIBUS MUNDI MEDIEVAL SACRED BUILDINGS ON THE VIA FRANCIGENA IN NORTHERN AND MIDDLE ITALY: SOLSTICE ALIGNMENTS AND ORIENTATIONS

2018

This paper discusses different aspects of sun light linked to a religious rite and combined with ecclesiastical architecture. Our focus is on the four points of the solstices which form two sectors, one towards the sunrise and the other to the sunset. This examination is mainly based on the study of the ancient thought of scholars and Fathers of the Church. Despite the deep significance of the solstices (the Births of Jesus Christ and John the Baptist, His forerunner), only few of the over two hundreds medieval churches, situated in the North of Italy and long the old pilgrimage route, the Via Francigena, are oriented towards the solstice and equinox rise/set points on the horizon. Georeferenced surveys on field with astronomical calculations were carried out on these sacred buildings by the author and the results were strengthened with primary and secondary written sources. Throughout medieval times on path of faith a lot of hostels and sacred buildings were founded for pilgrims and travellers and a great deal of diaries written by the pilgrims survived so far. These travel reports record important building descriptions and knowledge of that time. In detail we will discuss a medieval drawing, one of the few we can admire and which represents the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. It is particularly interesting to note, in this accurate drawing, the position of the doors of the building which appear oriented to the eight Winds Rose and the summer/winter solstices; the niches which show the cardinal points; and the Sepulchri that incorporates an Easter alignment. Finally, we discuss solsticial alignments of medieval church axes and of the position of sunlight inside sacred buildings among the summer solstice, when the sun is at its highest and simultaneously begins to appear lower.

Archaeoastronomy and the orientation of old churches

Bulletin of the Argentine Astronomical Society (BAAA), 2016

Abstract / Cultural astronomy is an interdisciplinary area of research that studies how perceptions and concepts related to the sky are part of the worldview of a culture. One of its branches, archaeoastronomy, focuses on the material remains of past peoples and tries to investigate their practices and astronomical knowledge. In this context, the orientation of Christian churches is now considered a distinctive feature of their architecture that repeats patterns from early Christian times. There is a general tendency to align their altars in the solar range, with preference for orientations towards the east. Here we present recent data from our measurements of astronomical orientations of old churches located in two –geographically and culturally– very distant regions, and we discuss the results in the light of the historical and cultural knowledge surrounding these temples. Alejandro Gangui, Bulletin of the Argentine Astronomical Society (BAAA), Vol. 58, paper #261, P. Benaglia, et al. (eds.), 2016.

The alignment of medieval churches in Northern-Central Italy and in the Alps and the path of light inside the church on the patron Saint's day, SEAC XXIII Rome November 9-13 2015, "Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry", 2016, vol. 16. no. 4, pp. 455-463.

GPS surveys of 181 medieval churches situated in northern-central Italy and in the Alps demonstrate major axis alignments to the horizon positions of the rising and setting Sun or Moon. The geographic scope includes the Veneto region and the old Via Francigena pilgrim route, the 1,200 km tract from the Swiss Alps to southern Tuscany, passing through the cantons of Vaud and Valais and regions including the Aosta Valley, Piemont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany. Construction dates range up to the Romanesque Age. In most cases, the church's major axis coincides with the sunrise or sunset position on the Patron Saint's day to whom the church was dedicated or on one of the four Virgin Mary's medieval feast days, i.e: the Annunciation (25 March); Purification (2 February); Assumption (18 January, 15 August) and Nativity (8 September). Church alignments (major axis and windows) are derived from GPS ground surveys and were cross-referenced with medieval liturgical and astronomical sources as well as scholarly literature. KEYWORDS: medieval churches, orientation, objective and written evidence, GPS survey, Italy and Alps: Veneto region and Via Francigena, Patron Saint's day, sunrise or sunset.