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Category Archives: Historical Sites and Monuments
St Hippolytus: the story goes on
A little follow-on to my previous post on horse blessing. The earliest evidence of this custom at St Ippolyts Church comes from the end of the sixteenth century. In 1598, the antiquary John Norden wrote of the place in the … Continue reading
Posted in Historical Sites and Monuments, Medieval animals, Medieval horses
Tagged horse, saints, St. Hyppolite
1 Comment
The Patron Saints of Experimental Archeology
Today is the day of experimental archaeology. Not marked in as such in any calendar – yet – but let’s consider the facts.The Orthodox Christian Church is celebrating the Foundation (or finding?) of the Holy Cross, or, in Greek, Η … Continue reading
Posted in Historical Sites and Monuments, History
Tagged Byzantium, experimental archaeology
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Some thoughts on medieval urban equines
in the late Middle Ages, the horse became more widely popular as a means of transportation than ever before in history… (Fabienne Meiers, “Equestrian Cities: The Use of Riding Horses and Characteristics of Horse Husbandry in Late Medieval Urban Agglomerations,” … Continue reading
The Count of May Festival in Riga
With history being in fashion today, it is not surprising that many old traditions are revived or reinvented, attracting tourists and enriching the communities’ cultural lives. A good example of it is the Count of May festival in Riga, a … Continue reading
Sex and witchcraft in early modern Livonia: the eyewitness accounts by Balthasar Russow and Dionysius Fabricius
It’s been a long time since my promised post on the outrageous morals of early modern Livonians, which fired Protestant pastors (Balthasar Russow, quoted from in my previous post) and Jesuit brothers alike. In fact, I have found another chronicle … Continue reading
Posted in Historical Sites and Monuments, History, History of Livonia, Uncategorized
Tagged Chronicle of Livonia, Fabricius, Livonia, Russow, witchcraft
3 Comments
Where to execute a criminal in the Middle Ages?
Do you have morbid fascination with gallows, pillories and other sites of execution and infamy? If you do, you will probably never confess this interest, lest your colleagues shall fear you as a closet maniac. Unless, of course, you are … Continue reading
Posted in Historical Sites and Monuments, History, Social Theory, Uncategorized
Tagged archaeology, medieval Latvia, medieval law
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Medieval Churches in Latvia
Romanesque, early Gothic and late Gothic churches were all present on the landscape of medieval Latvia. Many of them have survived wars and fires and still make their mark on the surroundings. Constructed from the twelfth century onwards and rebuilt throughout their history, medieval churches offer a standing testimony to the malleability of history, a reminder of the instability, permeability of meaning. Burned to the four walls and erected once again (Krimulda Church), rebuilt to suit the latest tastes already in the Middle Ages (St. Peter’s), or ruined to the four shattered walls, plaintively exposed against the blue waters of the Daugava River (Ikshkile Church) – these are just a few examples of the still beautiful monuments of sacred history which have the power to take the visitors back in time. Continue reading
Posted in Historical Sites and Monuments, History, Uncategorized
Tagged medieval church, medieval Latvia
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Hillforts in Latvia
Hillforts or castle mounds (pilskalns in Latvian, literally meaning ‘častle’ or ‘fort’ on a hill) is not the same as your typical medieval castle. For one thing, they appear early, dating back to the Neolithic period, and disappear from the Latvian landscape around the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries. On the other hand, they are so closely related to the later stone castles, both geographically (often occupying the same site) and historically that I believe they should be studied together. Continue reading
Posted in Historical Sites and Monuments, Uncategorized
Tagged castles, hillforts, medieval castles
2 Comments
What did medieval people know about Hungary?
What do the Old Norse sagas, the chronicle narrative of Jean Froissart and the Old Serbian annals have in common? How about the Dominican collection of pious exempla by Jacobus de Cessolis, Liber de moribus? Well, to give you yet another clue, think of the late French Arthurian romance of Melyador and the anonymous fifteenth-century Middle English metrical romance Capystranus. Still no nearer to the answer? Hungary and the Hungarians! Surprising as it may sound, Hungary makes a frequent and variegated appearance in a variety of medieval narrative sources across Europe, from Iceland to Italy, not to mention Germany, France, England and such close neighbours as Poland and Serbia. Continue reading
Illuminated Charters and Digital Humanities – A Conference Report
What is an illuminated charter? This is the question me and Edgar unfailingly heard from friends and relatives when we told them we are going to Vienna to a conference on Illuminated Charters. I must confess that I was puzzled and mystified when I first read the call for papers ‘Illuminated Charters: From the Margins of two Disciplines to the Core of Digital Humanities’. This may have been the reason I enlisted my co-author’s and husband’s help and sent a proposal to the conference organisers, on ‘The Functions of Illuminated Charters from Latvian and Lithuanian Archives in European Context’. Continue reading
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