Title in English: Pilgrimage Art in the Middle Ages as a Physical Experience. Landscape, pilgrim and treasure
When one says “medieval pilgrimage”, one imagines an almost fanatical religious act. Such an image is based on modern prejudices about medieval religion, which is now commonly associated with irrationality, manipulation, lack of tolerance and often violence. What did a medieval pilgrimage look like in reality? How should we imagine the figure of the medieval pilgrim? What did the world around him look like? And what is the relationship between pilgrimage and art? These are some of the questions this book seeks to answer. It follows a medieval pilgrim on his journey through the countryside to the interior of the church at his destination, showing how he experienced the sacred there firsthand through art, the smell of incense, candlelight, and the pleasant coolness of the air. One thing seems certain from the start: in the pre-modern world, as today, pilgrimage was a life-changing experience that left no one indifferent.
