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IMC 2007: Sessions

Session 1606: Urban Life in Central and South-Eastern Europe: Hungarian Queens and Byzantine Beroia

Thursday 12 July 2007, 11.15-12.45

Moderator/Chair:Wladyslaw Roczniak, Bronx Community College, City University of New York
Paper 1606-bSpiritual Care and Urban Life in Byzantine Beroia
(Language: English)
Sophia Chatzicocoli, Department of Urban-Regional Planning & Development Engineering, School of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Macedonia
Index terms: Architecture - General, Architecture - Religious, Byzantine Studies
Abstract

Paper a: There existed a variety of legal statuses for cities in medieval Hungary. In one such category were the cities belonging under the administration of the queens of Hungary, who held their own court with separate economy. The Queen's affairs were handled by her chancellor. What did this status involve for the cities in terms of administration, law, and culture? And what did this influence mean for the Queen in relation to her legal and social standing? The subject of this paper will be restricted to the period between c. 1000 and 1301, when the House of Árpád reigned in Hungary.
Paper b: Spiritual care was always an important component of urban life in the city of Beroia (Veroia) located in the region of Central Macedonia in Greece, with a continuous existence in the same place with the same name since the antiquity.
During the Byzantine time, spiritual care was offered in the city mainly by a plethora of Orthodox churches and monasteries that were founded mainly on the foundations of earlier ancient temples or earlier Orthodox churches, using the existing building materials. Several church renovations and redecorations are also mentioned following changes and development in Beroia’ s social life.
With this paper an attempt will be made to approach urban life and changes through information on spiritual care and settings that are still surviving or mentioned in literary sources and epigraphic evidences.