Chair Josep Torró (U. Valencia)

The spaces of the king in medieval Lisbon: the protagonism of the Alcáçova (13th-15th centuries)

11:00-11:30 | Amélia Andrade (IEM - NOVA)  

After the accession to the throne of Afonso III in 1248, it became evident that the Crown considered the city of Lisbon as the preferential space for the installation of the court, as the setting for the main rituals of power, and as the appropriate place to put the main administrative institutions. Lord of the city, the king intervened in the entire urban space, promoting its enhancement and qualification and also seeking to ensure balance and social peace in what was the largest human concentration of his kingdom. But it was in the Alcáçova – where his presence was most felt – that his mark was most evident. It could even be said that it was a space at the service of the Crown and deeply connected to it. This presentation is intended as a reflection on the role that the Alcáçova played as a space of royal power between the second half of the 13th century and the beginning of the 16th century, thus continuing a tradition of association with the exercise of power that predates the conquest of the city in 1147.

The Andalusian mosques and their surroundings after the Christian conquest. Transformations and survival

11:30-12:00 |  Susana Calvo Capilla (U. Complutense Madrid)

The conversion and transformation of the mosques of al-Andalus after the Christian conquest is a process quite well known and studied in some cities such as Toledo, Cordoba, Seville, Murcia and Granada. Apart from the buildings themselves, the mosques converted into churches that have been preserved, our second source of information to study their Christianization process are the textual sources: chronicles, legal works and documents after the conquest (royal donations, ecclesiastical documents, sales and purchases, Books of Repartimiento). The conversion process not only implied the consecration of the prayer hall to Christian worship or the placing of bells on the minarets, but also a transformation of the liminal or adjacent areas: streets and squares surrounding the mosque, facades and doorways, buildings and annexed spaces. These areas, which in Islamic times served both liturgical uses and urban life activities, were modified in different ways in Christian cities.

Amélia Andrade. Full Professor of Medieval History - Department of History, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, New University of Lisbon (NOVA FCSH). Her areas of research focus on medieval urban history, the study of spaces and powers in the Middle Ages and their respective forms of articulation and the exploration of medieval royal inquiries as a privileged source for the treatment of such themes. In recent years she has privileged the medieval city of Lisbon as her observation space. She has held multiple scientific and academic positions in Portugal and abroad. Since 2011, she is director of the Mário Sottomayor Cardia Library and Documentation Centers of NOVA FCSH; and, since 2017, principal investigator of ROSSIO Infrastructure - Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities (https://rossio.pt/). She is also a member of the Scientific Council of NOVA FCSH, where she was vice president between 2006 and 2008, and again since 2021. She was sub-director of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon (2009-2012), coordinator of the PhD course in History at NOVA FCSH (2011-2013), and also coordinator of the PhD course in Medieval Studies, in a partnership between NOVA FCSH and UAberta (2016-2018). Head of the Institute of Medieval Studies, of the same faculty, between 2011 and 2016. Internationally, in addition to the numerous projects, research networks, juries and evaluation panels, she is a member of the Société Française d'Histoire Urbaine and a current emeritus member of the European Association for Urban History, whose scientific committee she served from 2008 to 2018. She is, since 2005, a member of the Scientific Committee of Nájera: Encuentros Internacionales del Medievo.

Susana Calvo Capilla. Professor of Art History at the Complutense University of Madrid since 2009. Degree and PhD in Art History from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Research Staff Training Scholarship (F.P.I.). Her doctoral thesis entitled "Studies on religious architecture in al-Andalus: small mosques in their historical and cultural context" was co-directed by Dr Isidro G. Bango (UAM) and Dr Christian Ewert (German Archaeological Institute) and received the Extraordinary Doctorate Award. She has made numerous stays in foreign research centres with pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training grants, in Damascus (Syria); Cairo (Egypt); Paris and Aix-en-Provence (France). In the fall of 2022, he completed a three-month stay at Harvard University as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture (AKPIA). His research focuses on the study of Islamic visual culture and the religious and palatial architecture of al-Andalus. Notable books include Las mezquitas de al-Andalus (Almería, 2014), Urbanismo de la Córdoba islámica (Madrid, 2002) and the edition of Las artes en Al-Andalus y Egipto. Contexts and exchanges (Madrid, 2017). His articles, published in national and international journals, address the study of the mosques of al-Andalus and their epigraphic programs, in particular the Great Mosque of Cordoba, the spaces of Andalusian science (Madinat al-Zahra), the presence of classical antiquity in the Caliphate of Cordoba. He has been part of the scientific committees of several museum programs, such as the Museum of Santa Cruz, the Convent of Santa Fe and the Taller del Moro (Toledo); as well as exhibitions: "Metal Arts in Al-Andalus" of the National Archaeological Museum, "Lieux saints partagés" of the Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (MuCEM, Marseille). Member of the research team in several national projects and, more recently, as PI together with Dr Ruiz Souza of the R&D-i research project of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness HAR2013-45578-R: Al Andalus, the Hispanic kingdoms and Egypt: art, power and knowledge in the medieval Mediterranean. Exchange networks and their impact on visual culture. She is currently Principal Investigator with Dr J. C. Ruiz Souza of the R+D+i project of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities: RTI2018-093880-B-I00, Al-Andalus, art, science and contexts in the open Mediterranean. From the West to Egypt and Syria.