Course objectives: The course is offering an overview of research problems related to architecture, urban space and territorial organisation, specific to the region of Southeast Europe in the period from Antiquity to the Early Modern era. Classical heritage, multiconfessionalism, early concept of public space, dichotomy of orientation towards land/sea, are some of the key factors that shaped the cities and the urban culture of the pre-modern area between the Adriatic, the Danube and Asia Minor. Focused analyses of the role, meaning and transformations of architectural and urban forms as well as the mechanisms of territory organisation and control, based on comparative surveys and selected case-studies, should enable students to apply the methodological tools in further research on various relations between the architectural/urban forms and functions and their political, social, economic or religious context.

Enrolment requirements and/or entry competences required for the course: none

Learning outcomes at the level of the programme to which the course contributes: (1) Analyse and interpret phenomena in the field of art in the regional context

(2) Explain, analyse, and compare the main historical events, processes, and structures in Southeast Europe

(3) Critically assess and apply theoretical approaches to the analysis of phenomena and processes in Southeast Europe

Expected learning outcomes at the level of the course:   

(1) To analyse and interpret phenomena in the field of pre-modern architecture and urban planning in the regional context in longue dureé

(2) To analyse the political context of creation and formulation of architectural and urban forms in Southeast Europe in the pre-modern period

(3) To compare pre-modern architectural and urban forms in various cultural and confessional environments in Southeast Europe

(4) To analyse the symbolic level of architectural forms (iconography of architecture) in Southeast Europe in the pre-modern period

(5) To analyse patterns and mechanisms of territory management and control in Southeast Europe in the pre-modern period

Course content (syllabus):   

(1) Introduction: Southeast Europe in the pre-modern period – geographical, chronological and cultural framework; regional processes towards homogeneity and heterogeneity (centre-periphery model, Karaman’s approach: peripheric, provincial and border art, policentrality); typologies of urban settlements, spaces and architecture

(2) Different types of settlements and processes of settlement development in different cultural and political environments – Minoan, Mycenaean and the Near East settlements, Greek polis: “private”/“public” spaces (palatial-settlements, agora as public space in “democratic” Greece: prytanea, buleuteria, stoai); patterns and models of settlement development (agglutination, graduate growth and space division); defence systems (fortified citadels or complex wall system; sea defence infrastructure: open/enclosed harbours, arsenals, shipsheds, maritime towers)

(3) Emergence of regular grid system and the Hippodamian model of settlement planning in Classical Greece in relation to cultural interactions between East and West (theoretical framework)

(4) Roman landscape and territorial organization in the provinces – Dalmatia, Pannonia, Moesia, Thrace: contextualization of diverse means of land and sea exploitation (agricultural and “industrial“ complexes), measurement and land division in connection to property relations (organization of colonial ager: scamna, strigae, talus, centuriae; private and imperial/State estates); control of the territory: land and maritime routes, state-run mansiones, cursus publicus, maritime portoria; fortified frontiers – limites: Dunav, Drava, Sava River in the 1st – 5th c., Justinian’s limes maritimus

(5) Settlement morphology and patterns of its transformation from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages in social and political context – gathered and/or dispersed settlements; fortified settlements (castra/castella), open-space settlements (villae/vici), administrative and residential centres (praetoria), productive facilities, religious centres and cemeteries; structural and functional transformations in relation to property, ethnic, religious and social grouping

(6) “Urbanisation” or “ruralisation” of residential and administrative centres from the 4th to the 11th c. in the Danube-Balkan region: Emergence and transformation of late antique palaces, military and state praetoria, state mansiones, and productive villas

(7) Communal statutes: medieval planned cities and the classical heritage; city government, administrative and cathedral complexes and public space; monastic and Mendicant topographies – urban, suburban and extra-urban

(8) Religious means in territory control: churches as territory demarcations (hagiotopography), hostage relics; hagiographic layers as indicators of political domination (Roman, Carolingian, Byzantine)

(9) Concept(s) of adriobyzantism; “western” styles in the East; Venetian impact on urban features in Stato da Mar: architectural iconography and political symbolism of St Mark

(10) The Ottoman city in the Balkans: urban status (şehir, kasaba, varoş) and subdivision (mahalle); focal points of urban life (bazaar, çarşı, bedesten, khan, mosque, imaret, hammam, madrasa); the “Ottomanised” city (Constantinople) and the Ottoman city (Sarajevo); early modern urban processes between regionalism and the Empire

(11) Foreigners and minorities in the medieval and early modern period: between inclusion and exclusion (ethnic grouping in the urban space, religious minorities and their spaces, ghettos, pilgrims)

(12) Cross-border exchange through ports, lazaretti, caravan routes and stations, customs offices and markets – a comparative study of commercial, sanitary and social regulation of spaces of contact between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice

(13) Public infrastructure and territorial management: ports, roads, water; fortifications: transformation of walled cities (medieval to early modern) and territorial control through border forts; “industrial” quarters in the Pre-modern city; catastics – urban and rural land division

(14) Religious architecture contrasted – parallels and differences between confessions: Catholic, Orthodox, Islamic, Jewish; places of overlapping (Islamization of churches and Christianization of mosques; shared use of religious space; Ottoman Syncretism); spatial relation cemetery – city

(15) Overview of main thematic lines in long duration (social, political, economic and religious impact on urban forms)

Format of instruction: lectures

Student responsibilities: class attendance, oral exam, reading assignments discussion

1. Pascal Arnaud, „Cities and Maritime Trade under the Roman Empire,“ in: Connecting the Ancient World – Mediterranean Shipping, Maritime Networks and their Impact, ed. Christoph Schäfer. Pharos – Studien zur griechisch-römischen Antike vol. 35. Rahden: Verlag Marie Leidorf, 2016, pp. 117-174.
2. Donatella Calabi, ed., Venice, Jews and Europe 1516-2016. Venice: Marsilio Editori, 2016 (selected chapters).
3. Donatella Calabi, „Città e territorio nel dominio da mar,“ in: Storia di Venezia vol. 6: Dal Rinascimento al Barocco, ed. Gaetano Cozzi, Paolo Prodi. Rome: Enciclopedia Italiana, 1994, pp. 943 – 977.
4. Slobodan Ćurčić, Architecture in the Balkans. From Diocletian to Süleyman the Magnificent. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
5. Jamieson C. Donati, “The City in the Greek and Roman World,“ in: The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture, ed. Clemente Marconi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
6. Patricia Fortini Brown, “Ritual Geographies in Venice’s Mediterranean Empire,” in: Mark Jurdjevic, Rolf Strøm-Olsen, ed., Rituals of Politics and Culture in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honour of Edward Muir. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2016, pp. 43-69.
7. Maria Georgopoulou, Venice’s Mediterranean Colonies: Architecture and Urbanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001 (selected chapters).
8. Sauro Gelichi, Lauro Olmo-Enciso, ed., Mediterranean Landscapes in Post Antiquity. New frontiers and new perspectives. Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing, 2019 (selected chapters).
9. Quentin Letesson, Carl Knappett, Michael E. Smith, “A Comparative Perspective on Minoan Urbanism,” in: Minoan Architecture and Urbanism: New Perspectives on an Ancient Built Environment, ed. Quentin Letesson, Carl Knappett. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017
10. Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961 (selected chapters)
11. Pierre Pinon, “The Ottoman cities of the Balkans,” in: The city in the Islamic World, vol. 1, ed. Salma Jayyusi. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2008, pp. 143-158.
12. Paul Zucker, Town and Square: From the Agora to the Village Green. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959 (selected chapters).

1. Andrej Andrejević, “Pretvaranje crkava u džamije,” Zbornik za likovne umetnosti 12 (1976): 97-117.
2. Benjamin Arbel, “Venice’s Maritime Empire in the Early Modern Period,” in: Eric Dursteler, ed., A Companion to Venetian History, 1400-1797. Leiden: Brill, 2013, pp. 125-253.
3. Michele Bacci, Martin Rohde, ed., The Holy Portolano / Le Portulan sacré: The Sacred Geography of Navigation in the Middle Ages. Fribourg Colloquium 2013 / La géographie religieuse de la navigation au Moyen Âge. Colloque Fribourgeois 2013. Scrinium Friburgense vol. 36. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014 (selected chapters).
4. Anđelko Badurina. “Uloga samostana u urbanizaciji jadranske obale,” Peristil 21/1 (1978): 131-134.
5. David Blackman, “Classical and Helenistic Sheds” in: Shipsheds of the Ancient Mediterranean, 18-29. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
6. Laris Borić, ‘Izgradnja Gradske lože u Zadru (1565.) u urbanističkom i stilskom kontekstu formiranja venecijanske upravno-obrambene četvrti’, in: Likovne umjetnosti, arhitektura i povijesni identiteti, ed. Ana Marinković, Ana Munk. Zbornik Dana Cvita Fiskovića vol 7. Zagreb: FF Press, 2018, pp. 83-95.
7. Grigor Boykov, “Reshaping urban space in the Ottoman Balkans: a study on the architectural development of Edirne, Plovdiv, and Skopje (14th-15th centuries),” in: Centres and peripheries in Ottoman architecture: Rediscovering a Balkan heritage, ed. Maximilian Hartmuth. Sarajevo: Cultural Heritage without Borders, 2011, pp. 36-49.
8. Neil Christie, ed., Landscapes of Change. Rural Evolutions in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate, 2004 (selected chapters).
9. Slavko Ciglenečki, „Justinijanovo utvrđivanje Ilirika,“ Archaeologia Adriatica 3 (2009): 205-222.
10. Slobodan Čurčić, „Late-Antique Palaces: The Meaning of Urban Context,“ Ars Orientalis – Pre-Modern Islamic Palaces 23 (1993): 67-90.
11. ________, Evangelia Hadjitryphonos, Secular medieval architecture in the Balkans 1300-1500 and its preservation. Thessaloniki: Aimos, Society for the Study of the Medieval Architecture in the Balkans and its Preservation, 1997.
12. Danube Limes Brand – Extension of the Danube Limes UNESCO World Heritage in the Lower Danube (http://danubelimesbrand.org/hr/)
13. Aidan Kirkpatrick, The Image of the City in Antiquity: Tracing the Origins of Urban Planning, Hippodamian Theory, and the Orthogonal Grid in Classical Greece, dissertation, University of Victoria, 2015 (selected chapters)
14. Katerina Konstantinidou, Lazzaretti veneziani in Grecia. Padua: Elzeviro, 2015
15. Çiğdem Kafescioğlu, Constantinopolis/Istanbul: Cultural Encounter, Imperial Vision, and the Construction of the Ottoman Capital (Buildings, Landscapes, and Societies). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009
16. Ana Marinković, “Territorial Expansion of the Ragusan Commune/Republic and the Churches of Its Patron Saints,” Dubrovnik Annals 13 (2009): 7-23
17. ________, “O (ne)podudaranju prekojadranskih umjetničkih, crkvenih, političkih i trgovačkih veza,” in: Pontes Adriatici: Mreže kulturne razmjene na Jadranu, ed. Nikolina Maraković, Tin Turković. Zagreb: FF press, 2018
18. ________, “Saints’ Relics in Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni: An Anti-Ottoman Pantheon,” Il Capitale Culturale – Supplementi 7 (2018): 25-44
19. ________, “Hostage Relics and Venetian Maritime Control in the Eastern Adriatic,” in: Ein Meer und seine Heiligen. Hagiographie im mittelalterlichen Mediterraneum, ed. Nikolas Jaspert, Cristian A. Neumann, Marco di Branco. Mittelmeerstudien vol. 18. Paderborn: Brill/Fink, 2018, pp. 275-296.
20. Ante Milošević, ed., Lazareti u Dubrovniku: početak karantenske službe u Europi. Dubrovnik: Zavod za obnovu Dubrovnika, 2018 (selected chapters).
21. Vesna Miović. Židovski geto u Dubrovačkoj Republici (1546-1808). Zagreb – Dubrovnik: Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Zavod za povijesne znanosti u Dubrovniku, 2005.
22. Alina Payne, ed., Dalmatia and the Mediterranean: Portable Archaeology and the Poetics of Influence. Mediterranean Art Histories vol. 1. Leiden: Brill, 2014 (selected chapters).
23. Marija Planić-Lončarić. Planirana izgradnja na području Dubrovačke Republike. Zagreb: Institut za povijest umjetnosti, 1980.
24. Ana Plosnić Škarić, ed., Mapping Urban Changes. Zagreb: Institut za povijest umjetnosti, 2018 (selected chapters).
25. Milan Prelog, “Dubrovački statut I izgradnja grada (1272-1972),” Peristil 14-15/1 (1971): 81-94.
26. Orazio Pugliese, ed., Venezia e la peste 1348 – 1797, exhibition catalogue. Venice: Marsilio Editori, 1979.
27. Željko Rapanić, “Ima li dvojbe oko termina ‘adriobizantizam’,” in: Zbornik Tomislava Marasovića, ed. Ivo Babić, Ante Milošević, Željko Rapanić. Split: Sveučilište u Splitu, 2002, pp. 172-178.
28. Olivia Remie Constable, Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003 (selected chapters).
29. Petar Strunje, Splitski lazaret i trgovačka skala. Zagreb: FFpress, 2021 (forthcoming).
30. ________, “Constructing a Fondaco per i Turchi: Discussions, mediators, commissions,” in: Conoscere, Interpretare, Diffondere: La circolazione nella cultura architettonica mediterranea tra XVII e XVIII secolo, ed. Rossana Ravesi, Alper Metin. Rome: Università Sapienza di Roma, 2022 (forthcoming).
31. ________, “Christianization of Mosques in Dalmatia: Recontextualization of sacral architecture,” Turcica 53 (2022) (forthcoming).
32. Nikolai Todorov, The Balkan City 1400-1900, Seattle – London: University of Washington Press, 1983 (selected chapters).
33. Seid Traljić, “Trgovina Bosne i Hercegovine s lukama Dalmacije i Dubrovnika u XVII i XVIII stoljeću,” in: Pomorski zbornik: povodom 20-godišnjice dana mornarice i pomorstva Jugoslavije 1942. – 1962., vol. 1, ed. Grga Novak, Vjekoslav Maštrović. Zagreb – Zadar: Jugoslavenska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti – Institut za historijske i ekonomske nauke, 1962, pp. 341-371.
34. Elena Vanzan Marchini, ed., Rotte Mediterranee e baluardi di sanità: Venezia e i lazzaretti mediterranei, exhibition catalogue. Milan: Skira, 2004.
35. Maja Zeman, “Stvaranje i funkcioniranje rimskog ‘ruralnog pejzaža’ (1-4/5. st.): tipologija, kronologija i strukturne i funkcionalne promjene rezidencijalne i/ili gospodarske arhitekture,“ in: Transformacije rimskih “vila” na prostoru srednje Dalmacije tijekom kasne antike i ranog srednjeg vijeka, dissertation, Zagreb, Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, 2014.
36. ________. “A Reverse Perspective on the Transformations of the Roman ‘Rural Landscape’ in Central Dalmatia – Hyllis Peninsula, Danilo, Bilice,” in: Cities, Lands and Ports in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Archaeologies of Change, ed. Pilar Diarte-Blasco. Rome: BraDypUS, 2017, pp. 111-132.