At the end of the 1980s, a new methodology was introduced in Spain for the study of historic buildings from the perspective of archaeology, the stratigraphic analysis of elevations, the most widespread type of methodology in the discipline known as Archaeology of Architecture. In the 1990s, this new way of identifying the construction sequence of historic buildings spread rapidly throughout the Iberian Peninsula, and was first applied in Galicia, at the Hercules Roman Lighthouse.

The first consequence for fundamental research was the development of new interpretations for many medieval buildings that turned out to be older or later than claimed by traditional historiography. The second consequence was the consolidation of applied research in the field of architectural restoration. From that moment on, the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas began to develop an important activity of reviewing Galician buildings, mainly medieval ones, providing specialised training and disseminating research methods.

It will show, through several examples, a new interpretative panorama that forces to review many buildings of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Galicia, as well as the role of Galicia as a periphery, when in fact it had a very important constructive activity in the so-called ‘dark centuries’.

 

These questions will be the subject of the conference organised by the Ateneo Atlántico de Vigo, which will be given by Lab2PT researcher Rebeca Blanco-Rotea and will take place in the library of the EMAO (Municipal School of Arts and Crafts of Vigo).

 

Coordination: Ateneo de Vigo

Promoting Institutions: Ateneo Atlántico de Vigo (https://ateneoatlantico.gal/o-ateneo)