Urban and Sacred Topography of Prilep: A Byzantine Town in the Balkans

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Byzantine Studies Association of North America (BSANA)

Organizer Name

Galina Tirnanic, Svetlana Smolčić Makuljević, Petrula Kostovska

Organizer Affiliation

Oakland Univ., Metropolitan Univ. Belgrade, Independent Scholar

Presider Name

Galina Tirnanic

Paper Title 1

Sivec Marble, the Prilep Region, and the Early Byzantine Empire: A Case Study for Integration

Presenter 1 Name

Philipp Niewöhner

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Dumbarton Oaks

Paper Title 2

Patronage and Art in Thirteenth-Century Prilep

Presenter 2 Name

Petrula Kostovska

Paper Title 3

A City under a Holy Mountain: Prilep and the Monastery Treskavec

Presenter 3 Name

Svetlana Smolčić Makuljević

Paper Title 4

From Artistic Excellence to Marginalization: Traveling Painters from Mount Grammos in the Region of Prilep

Presenter 4 Name

Theocharis Tsampouras

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Princeton Univ.

Start Date

16-5-2015 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1135

Description

Medieval Prilep, which in the Constantinopolitan literary circles had its apogee in George Akropolites' famous History as a background to his disastrous attempt to hold onto the Nicean stronghold in Central Balkans in the thirteenth century, deserves a serious study that will explore various aspects of its historical, social, economic, cultural and artistic achievements. Given the remarkable degree of preservation of the medieval fortress and more than a dozen churches and monasteries, the idea is to initiate a novel understanding of the urban fabric and sacred topography of this important Macedonian town during Late Antiquity and the Byzantine period. The papers will provide a reassessment and contextualization of the Byzantine written sources on Prilep and the remains of its material and visual culture.

Galina Tirnanic