The Symbolic Presence of the Sun at Pătrăuţi: Preliminary Research and Observations Editura Universităţii de Vest, 2020 - Archaeoastronomy "This book presents systematically the solar alignments in the UNESCO monument church at Pătrăuți,Suceava county, Romania. Designed according to geometric principles employed since ancient times in theMediterranean basin and further developed during the Gothic era in Europe, the church is preserved in its original form from 1487. Beginning in the spring of 2004, I began noticing several solar projections inside the church thatsuggested to me that they might be generated by a deliberate directing of sunlight. After several years ofobservations and a photographic documentation of the phenomena that lasted three years, I decided to publish the observed solar alignments. Due to the uniqueness of the Moldavian style of architecture, the fact that Pătrăuţi is considered aprototype of this style, and the fact that we are discussing more than 10 symbolic solar alignments and even aseries of symbolic alignments that occur on the same day, from the same window or even from two windowsand the entrance doorway, I dare to note that from an architectural standpoint the church at Pătrăuți was built as a 'mechanism' that symbolically directs sunlight during the solstices and equinoxes.In this context, the inscription in the Patokrator's open book painted in the dome of the pronaos of thechurch is an explicit testimony to the cultural and Christian life that existed at the court of John Stephen theGreat of Moldavia: ????? ? ? (????) ? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??? ?????? ? ???????? [????] ???? ???[???????] – 'The Lord said: I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk indarkness'. (John 8:12)"--Back cover. |
