Loci Sacri: Understanding Sacred Places

Front Cover
Thomas Coomans
Leuven University Press, 2012 - Architecture - 280 pages

Sacred places have long exercised a special fascination. Sacred places are not static entities but reveal a historical dynamic. They are the result of cultural developments and have varied multidimensional levels of significance. They are places where time is, as it were, suspended, and they are points where holy times and holy places meet. Sacred places are places apart.

It is this specificity in the context of the Christian religions of the West that the controbutors to Loci Sacri wishes to unveil by bringing together specialists from various disciplines, countries, and Christian denominations. One of the questions is why some sites have for centuries proven to be so popular while others have not. Another topic is the way in which extraordinary natural sites have been designated as sacred and given new meaning, primarily by means of architecture. Loci Sacri also explores the 'eternal' character of this sacred status.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
7
What makes a Monastery a Sacred Place?
29
Sacred Places are Made of Time
49
Introduction
68
Capturing Nameless Energies Experiencing Matrixial Paradoxes
93
No Places of Pilgrimage without Devotions
125
Representing Sacred Space
139
Purported Sacrality
169
What makes a Site Sacred?
195
Introduction
210
Heritagization of Church Buildings
243
Bibliography
256
Authors
281
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

abbey ancient archaeological architectural Batres Beaumont-Hamel become Berber Bernard of Clairvaux biblical built Canary Islands Caso cathedral Catholic centre century ceremonies Christian church buildings Cistercian cult cultural dedication devotion Europe example Fuerteventura God’s Gran Canaria Guanches Hebrew Bible heritage holy places human Ibid important incarnated indigenous Jerusalem John journey Lady land literary pilgrimage literature live meaning medieval memory metaphor Mexican Mexico miracle Mitla Mixtecs modern monastery monastic monks Monte Albán monuments Mount museum nature Oaxaca Omphalos Peña phenomenon pilgrimage pilgrims places of pilgrimage prayer pre-Columbian present Quebec regarded religion religious buildings remains reuse ritual rock role ruins sacrality sacred places sacred sites sacred space sacredness secular sense shrine specific spiritual statue stone symbolic temple Temple Mount Tenerife texts tion Tomb tourist tradition transformed tree urban Vandenbroeck Virgen de Candelaria Virgen del Pino Wittem worship writings

About the author (2012)

Thomas Coomans is professor of architectural history and heritage conservation at the University of Leuven, Department of Architecture and Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation.

Bibliographic information

TitleLoci Sacri: Understanding Sacred Places
G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series
KADOC studies on religion, culture, and society, Katholiek Documentatie- en Onderzoekscentrum.Löwen, ISSN 1781-8478
EditorThomas Coomans
Editionillustrated
PublisherLeuven University Press, 2012
ISBN9058678423, 9789058678423
Length280 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Architecture / Buildings / Religious
Religion / Christianity / General
Religion / Comparative Religion
Religion / Institutions & Organizations
Religion / Sacred Places
  
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