Reconstructing Religious Buildings in 20th and 21st century Europe. Monuments, Heritage, Identity.
Reconstructing Religious Buildings in 20th and 21st century Europe. Monuments, Heritage, Identity.
Europe has changed profoundly in the twentieth century by wars, secularization, and the rise and fall of socialism. With regard to the restoration of historic buildings, the rise of modernism and the establishment of the Athens Charter (1933) and the Venice Charter (1964) have significance. Whether and how historic buildings were rebuilt is a tangible component of these changes. The explanation of why these buildings were restored or reconstructed cannot (only) be explained by the need for a place of worship. The decision for reconstruction was often made for other reasons: to revive or recreate a monument or heritage site that could shape a new identity. The methods of why and how this is done remain contested, as the polemics about the reconstruction projects in Paris and Potsdam illustrate.
Whether and how historic cathedrals, churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious buildings should be reconstructed is topical again after the fire that destroyed Notre Dame in Paris, and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
At the same time, there is a growing debate about how this reconstruction should take place, with Notre Dame in Paris being the most striking example.
The current polemics about reconstruction taking place in Paris and Potsdam, among others, can be summarized as a conflict between functionality and connotation as a place of worship, a conflict of alteration of the existing situation due to the intended reconstruction of a historical state, and the way in which this reconstruction is carried out. The approach to the problem of why and how to rebuild the destroyed church has changed in contemporary Europe. Through political and religious changes and through changed understandings of restoration methodology. By looking beyond national borders this conference aims to come to a better understanding of the restorations and current polemics.
This hybrid conference will bring together experts in Architectural and Art History, Architecture, and Monument Conservation from several European countries. Such as Germany, Belgium, France, Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ukraine. By bringing together speakers from different countries in an academic setting, similarities and differences in the approach to the reconstruction of historic religious buildings in Europe and the development between 1918 and the present day will be discussed.
The event will take place in the presence of RWTH University Aachen, but we offer the possibility of online participation.
For registration and information, please contact:
Marcus.van.der.meulen@rwth-aachen.de
Speakers and topics include:
- Why Ukraine’s Medieval Churches are under Threat of Reconstruction – Nazar Kozak
- The Second Life of Major Sacred Buildings in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina- Miroslav Malinovic & Jasna Guzijan
- The Wismar Miracle: Reconstruction of St George’s Church 1990-2010 – Anja Rasche & Nils Jörn
- Transformation of Listed Hungarian Roman Catholic Churches from Vatican II until Nowadays Erzsebet Urban
- Museum of Atheism and A Prison’s Firewood Storage. Reconstructing Medieval Churches in Soviet Estonia- Anneli Randla
- Restoration of the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague and the (re)construction of progressive national traditions in socialist Czechoslovakia – Jan Randak
- The Reconstruction of the Medieval Synagogue in Worms after the Shoa. Motifs, Interests, and How it Developed into a Jewish Space after the 1990s – Susanne Urban
- Resurrection Church in Kaunas – Giedrė Jankevičiūtė
- Reconstructing Religious Buildings in the Post-Communist Era: The Saint Friday Church in Bucharest – Mara Popescu
- The Reconstruction of the Garrison Church in Potsdam – Thomas Albrecht
- The Reconstruction of the burned down Gothic wooden church in Sröda Råda, Sweden – Karl Magnus Melin
- The Reconstruction of Medieval Heritage in Flanders Following the Destruction of the First World War. The Challenges of Church Reconstruction during the Interwar Period.
- The Postwar Reconstruction of Churches in Normandy, France – Mathieu Lours
Download the information related to this event here.
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