Gothic Сathedrals in the Fire of the World War: Monuments of Medieval Architecture in the Visual Historical Evidence of the 20th Century

Abstract

“Rotterdam durch deutsche bomben vernichtet” — this inscription in German Language was written on snapshot with most prominent Gothic-styled Church of the city. The nearest area was destroyed completely and only ruins there were everywhere. Today this card, an amateur photo, is a piece of historical evidence both in the fields of longue durée terms of existence for medieval monuments in traditional cityscapes and local societies, which had living there. During the periods of the First and the Second World Wars were made the arrays of images of the same sort with monuments of medieval culture — the cathedrals of Reims, Rouen, Amiens, Laon, the Sint-Laurenskerk in Rotterdam, the Benedictine abbey of Mont Saint-Michel. Together with the earlier images, these photographs allow us to return to the problem of the “Traditional Church in Modern Culture”, which was identified by R. Kieckhepher on another material, as well as to talk about the content of the images of the Middle Ages in the discourses of the 20th century (O. G. Oexle).