The Physical Setting of Relic Cults: Rome and the Architecture of the Carolingian Renaissance

Abstract

Abstract A significant change in the physical setting of the cult of saints in Gaul occurred in the mid-eighth century, with the establishment of Pepin’s new dynasty, which looked back to late sixth-century Rome for architectural inspiration and was responsible for the revival in that city of the architectural forms of the earlier age. Before discussing Carolingian patterns of veneration, we should first examine the cult of saints in Rome from the late sixth century and explore the occasional examples of Roman influence north of the Alps from that period to the ninth century.It is a commonplace to state that Rome remained conservative in the placement of its relics—and the oft-cited documentary evidence supporting this assumption has been summarized in Chapter I. Interestingly, the most powerful expression of this conservatism was made by the pope who was instrumental in developing new architectural forms associated with the cult of saints, Gregory the Great. Almost certainly due to his inspiration was the development of the ring-crypt, a structure which seems to have evolved entirely as a response to the cult of relics, with far—reaching implications for the design of churches throughout western Christendom.