Places of Faith

Programme

Thursday, 3 Oktober

18:00

Welcome Address - Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Austria Armen Papikyan

18:15

Opening Remarks - Benedetta Contin, Lewis Read, Anahit Safaryan

18:30

Keynote: The Relationship between Architectural Space and Liturgy in Armenia and its Later Developments in the Overall Subcaucasian Region: A Theological Insight | Boghos L. Zekiyan

19:30

Wine Reception

Friday, 4 Oktober

09:30-09:45      

Welcoming Address | Claudia Rapp and Andreas Rhoby

Opening Remarks | Benedetta Contin and Adrian C. Pirtea

09:45-11:15

Session 1: Holy Lives, Holy Objects, Holy Landscapes

Nikoloz Alexidze | Saints, Objects, and Landscape in Highland Svaneti
Benedetta Contin | Saints, Pilgrims, and Shrines: The Making of a Sacral Geography in Late Medieval Subcaucasia                                                                                      
Chair: Claudia Rapp

11:15 - 11:45

Coffee Break

11:45 - 13:15

Session 2: Mobile Saints and New Cult Spaces

Lewis Read | Commemorating Saint Eudoxius: Armenian Hagiography and the Byzantine Empire
Sara Scarpellini | On the Footsteps of Saint George: Tracing a Cult between Armenia and the Diaspora(s)                                                                                         
Chair: Adrian Pirtea

13:15 - 14:30

Lunch Break

14:30 - 16:00

Session 3: Memorialising Sacred Sites

Valentina Calzolari | Relics, burials and places of worship in the Armenian Christian apocryphal literature
Anahit Safaryan | Faith and Memory: Christianity as a Fundamental Pillar of Armenian Identity in the 17^th Century.          
Chair: Tara Andrews

16:00 - 16:30

Coffee Break

16:30 - 18:00

Session 4: The Emergence and Construction of Sacred Sites Between Armenia and Georgia

Mariam Chkhartishvili | At the Origins of Georgian Christian Hierotopy
Nazenie Garibian | Designing a New Sacred Topography: The Great Sanctuary of Ashtishat in the 4th - 5th centuries                                                                    
Chair: Johannes Preiser-Kapeller

19:00

Dinner Reception

Saturday, 5 Oktober

09:30 - 11:00

Session 5: Sacred Spaces and Lived Religions

Victoria Arakelova | Sacral Topography of Cross-Cultural Zones: Armenians, Alevi Zazay, Yezidis, Kurds 
Kevin Tuite | Saints, iconography, and ritual space: Vernacular Religion and Georgian Orthodoxy                                                       
Chair: Paolo Sartori

11:00 - 11:30

Coffee Break

11:30 - 13:00

Session 6: Approaching Caucasian Sacral Topography through Material Culture

Eve MacDonald | Of men, mountains and gods: High Alpine Landscapes, Spatial Construction of the Divine and the Realpolitik of the Dariali Fort in the Late Antique and Early Medieval Caucasus
Samvel Grigoryan | The Armenian Monasteries of Cilicia: Problem of Localisation.                                                                                                                                           Chair: Lioba Theis

13:00 - 13:15

Closing Remarks

13:15

Lunch (at own expense) - Optional

15:00

Visit to the Museum and Library of the Mekhitarist Congregation in Vienna - Optional