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Das Lektüreseminar diskutiert jüngst publizierte Arbeiten oder aber weitgehend abgeschlossene Manuskripte. Die Texte werden im Voraus an die Teilnehmenden verschickt und dann gemeinsam mit den Autorinnen und Autoren diskutiert.

In recent decades, the study of Romanesque cathedrals on the Iberian Peninsula has experienced significant advancement, largely due to the adoption of a multidisciplinary methodology that synthesizes construction archaeology, art historical analysis, documentary research, and the phenomenology of space. Within an evolving historiographical landscape—marked by a critical reassessment of positivist paradigms—it has become increasingly necessary to conceptualize ecclesiastical architecture not as static monuments, but as dynamic entities continually reshaped by the shifting intentions of their religious patrons.
This interpretive framework encourages a diachronic reconstruction of architectural trajectories, one that accounts not only for successive construction phases but also for liturgical functions, communal appropriations, and the sensory and performative dimensions of spatial experience. Such an approach seeks to understand how liturgical events were both accommodated within and inscribed upon architectural space, and conversely, how spatial configurations were conceived in response to ritual requirements. This enables a more nuanced understanding of the intentional density embedded within liturgical devices.
In this sense, the study of the cathedrals of Tarragona, Girona, Vic, Roda de Isábena, Salamanca, Oviedo, Tudela and Santo Domingo de la Calzada takes on its full significance. It is not simply a question of reconstructing construction phases or liturgical topographies, but rather of making intelligible a sacred conception of space, linked to a theological imagination, an institutional and spiritual project, and a strategy for staging ecclesiastical power. Far from being peripheral, these cathedrals reveal their full participation in the creative dynamics of 11th- and 12th-century Europe.

Moreover, by undertaking a cross-analysis of materials, formal elements, and functional practices, the current researches contribute to the redefinition of traditional analytical categories. While the sensory apparatuses of sacred architecture are undoubtedly crucial to interpretation, they must not be reduced to static "fossils of directionality." The rarity with which Romanesque architecture and decoration survive in their entirety—compounded by the frequent displacement of architectural fragments into museum contexts—significantly complicates the task of reconstructing the integrated relationships among structure, image, and ritual.
The inherently dynamic character of cathedrals and abbeys further underscores the inadequacy of assuming a direct, mechanical correspondence between the spatial distribution of visual elements and their reception. While architectural design may have anticipated specific uses, such uses remained perpetually open-ended, continually redefined through the embodied interaction of movement, gesture, voice, and gaze. Consequently, ecclesiastical spatiality cannot be fully apprehended through rigid functionalist models; rather, it must be approached as a semiotic field in flux, wherein meaning arises from the interplay between prescribed functions and lived experience.

Gerardo Boto Varela is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Art History at the University of Girona. For more information, see: https://girona.academia.edu/GerardoBoto

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