CRC 496 C6 - Profane and Sacred: Churchyards as Sites and Spheres of Symbolic Communication in the Rural Society of Westphalia (1400-1900)

Basic data for this project

Description

The project investigates the coexistence and the opposition of religious and secular spatial perceptions and uses on catholic and protestant churchyards in Westphalia (mainly the bishopric of Münster) and Central Germany (mainly the principality of Anhalt) between 1500 and 1800. It expects to come to a better, more concrete understanding of the ways that sacral areas were set up locally. It concentrates on the performative effect of rituals and symbols aiming at sanctity in the core of the rural society of Old Europe. The project expects to obtain insights into the ways sacral areas were set up ‘in situ' by the different confessions. Central thereby is the performative effect that rituals and symbols aiming at sainthood had in a centrepiece of the rural society of old Europe.