| Bazilika e Shën Mehillit | |
|---|---|
| Native name Albanian: Bazilika e Shën Mëhillit | |
 Basilica of Saint Michael | |
| Location | Arapaj, Durrës County |
| Coordinates | 41°18′05″N 19°30′20″E / 41.30137°N 19.50568°E |
| Built | 5th-6th centuries AD |
  Location of Bazilika e Shën Mehillit in Albania | |
The Basilica of Saint Michael (Albanian: Bazilika e Shën Mëhillit) is a former basilica dedicated to Saint Michael, located in Arapaj, Durrës. Its ruins have been declared a Cultural Monument of Albania.[1] The Basilica of Saint Michael is an early Palaeo-Christian church which is believed to date to the 5th or 6th century.[2][3] A mosaic unearthed in the basilica also demonstrates how ingrained Christian culture later was with the early Byzantine Empire.[4][5]
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Bronze doors, Saint Michael's, Hildesheim, commissioned by Bishop Bernward, 1015
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Inside the walls of Mont St Michel and interior of his abbey
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Normandy, France: Mont St-Michel
Transcription
SPEAKER 1: We're looking at the Bishop Bernward doors that date from about 1015. We know that Bishop Bernward went on a pilgrimage to Rome, and then returned back to Hildesheim, and wanted to recreate some of the monumental art that he saw. And specifically, when he was in Rome, he saw the monumental wooden doors at Santa Sabina that have scenes from the Old and New Testament carved into them. And he felt like he needed his own doors. SPEAKER 2: We read these starting in the upper left hand corner, in which you have the creation of Eve from the side of Adam. And then, below that is the presentation of Eve to Adam. Then the temptation. Below that, is then the accusation of Adam and Eve. And then, below that, the expulsion. The panel below that, interrupted by the door handles, and we see Adam working the land on the left, Eve nursing on the right. And a fun fact about the Eve nursing is that this is one of maybe only 20 images of Eve nursing. Below that, we have Cain and Abel and their sacrifices or presentation to the Lord. Below that, in the final panel, is the murder of Abel by Cain. SPEAKER 1: And then, instead of going back to the top, on the right it starts at the bottom, where we have the Annunciation, with Mary and the angel. Then the Nativity, that's the birth of Jesus. And then the scene that's interrupted by the door handle here is the adoration of the magi. We have three magi on the right approaching Mary and Jesus on the left. Above that, we have the presentation in the Temple. Above that, we've got Christ being presented to either Herod or Pilate before his crucifixion. Above that, we've got the crucifixion of Christ. Above that, we have the Marys at the tomb, which was the standard scene showing the Resurrection in the early Middle Ages. And then at the very top, we have what's called the noli me tangere. Mary Magdalene sees Jesus in the garden, and he says, don't touch me. And so we have our scenes from early Genesis, and then scenes from the Gospels. Now, one of the really interesting things that happens here is that we have all these scenes lined up next to each other. There are some visual and also some thematic patterns that happen left to right. And the one that I think is a really good example-- in the third panel from the top, we've got the Temptation. Adam and Eve are about to eat the fruit. And then on the right, the Crucifixion. And if we look at the tree that holds the fruit in the Adam and Eve scene, it's very much a cruciform shaped tree, just as we have Christ on the cross in the center of the other image. And then we have Adam and Eve on either side, just as we have the tormentors on either side. And then on the far edges of the Adam and Eve scene, we've got trees. And then, we have Mary and John in the Crucifixion scene. So there's a similarity of composition. And what I think that does is bring out the thematic connection of in Adam all men die, and in Christ all men are made alive, which is a really important idea for Christianity. And especially for Christianity in the Middle Ages. SPEAKER 2: Absolutely. This is a very long, old tradition in Christianity to compare Christ as the new Adam, and then Mary, the new Eve. And you have traditions that the cross was made from the wood of the tree in the garden. SPEAKER 1:So this an Ottonian work of art. And Ottonians were kind of, hangers on to the Carolingian Renaissance. They saw themselves as being inheritors of the Carolingian Empire. In my mind, they are not so much looking back so diligently to the classical models. But there is definitely the flavor of some of that Carolingian Renaissance here. These are cast in solid bronze. And it's very much thought that the lost wax method was used here. That Bishop Bernward had his artists recreate or rediscover the lost wax method, so that these doors could be cast in two single pieces, as opposed to being hammered from the inside with the repousse. SPEAKER 2: And that is very much in keeping with that Carolingian and the inherited idea of looking back to classical and ancient models and reclaiming them and reviving them. SPEAKER 1: Right. So we have the ancient method used here in the Ottonian period.
Background
The construction of the basilica dates back to the 5th – 6th centuries, as the monogrammed pavement found in the atrium dates back to the reign of the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I Dicorus (491–518). The basilica is believed to have been dedicated to the Archangel Michael and was in use until the 11th century, when, according to research[citation needed], the building was set on fire by the Norman army led by Robert Guiscard, who occupied Dürrakhion in 1081. In the area of the destroyed basilica, members of the bodyguard of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos who had fallen in battle were buried.
The ruins were not discovered until 1974 by two Albanian archaeologists, Hava and Sali Hidri, and the foundations of the building and the famous mosaic were not excavated until 1981–1983. Based on the sporadic finds found here, the narrower surroundings of the former church may have been inhabited until the 13th century, but the basilica was forgotten for centuries to come.
Description
The basilica is located 5 km southeast of the center of Durrës, 10 km by road, on the southern border of the village of Arapaj, on the side of St. Michael's Hill (Kodra e Shën Mëhillit). The site is surrounded by a fence, but can be accessed and walked in through a gate that opens from the north side. The longitudinal axis of the east-facing basilica is approx. 60 meters, 20 meters wide at the narthex and 30 meters at the apse of the aisles. It is of the three-lobed type, that is, the eastern ends of both the two aisles and the main nave enclosed by them end in an apse, a semicircular sanctuary. Based on art historical research, the three-lobed floor plan characterized the basilicas assigned to the cult of saints and martyrs in the region, and presumably the main task of the Arapaj may have been to preserve a relic. The four entrances to the building opened from the narthex bordering the atrium on the west side, two to the main nave and one to the aisles. Attached to the south side of the basilica is a smaller burial chamber buried in the ground, in which the remains of a man and a woman have been excavated by archaeologists. The top of the tomb is covered by a richly colored (polychrome) 54-square-foot mosaic that has survived to this day (however, for reasons of conservation, it is covered with a layer of gravel so it is not visible).
The interior of the basilica was divided by a carved columned column, but some fragments of stone and bronze statues were also unearthed during the excavations. Representations of contemporary geometric mosaics known from the territory of present-day Albania, but also moving away from the sacral (mythical or biblical) in the direction of the profane, make the Arapaj site special. Two scenes can be seen on the mosaic surface: in one part, two contemporary peasants — a woman and a man — sit outdoors surrounded by their dogs, horses, goats, and sheep; the other half of the panel depicts a two-eared crater, from whose mouth the wine flows in two directions, and a stag and a cow approach each branch of the resulting wine stream to quench their thirst. It is believed that the first image depicts the paradise life of the deceased couple, while the wine spilling out of the crater is an iconographic reference to the death of Christ and the Eucharist, possibly showing an allegorical couple drinking from the source of eternal life after death.
References
- ^ "Religious buildings with the "Culture Monument" status". Republic of Albania National Committee for Cult. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
- ^ Albania today, 1981, p.46
- ^ "Shen Mehill Arapaj Basilica - holiday Albania". Tixik.com. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved November 7, 2010.
- ^ Winnifrith, Tom (1991). Perspectives on Albania. Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-51282-0.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ Gilkes, Oliver (2013). Albania: An archaeological guide. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. pp. 56–58. ISBN 9781780760698.
External links
This page was last edited on 17 March 2023, at 21:18