Sacred Places: What Gave London, Paris, and Florence Their Allure?

 Mini-Course Offered by the NU Emeriti Organization and EPL.

Some places are famously known as sacred. Rome had deep religious significance even before Christianity, and Constantinople was founded as a new Rome. Canterbury and Santiago de Compostela are notable pilgrimage sites. But even cities and towns that we may not think of so readily as sacred—Prague, Bruges, Nuremberg, London, Paris, Florence, and many others—were also at some point in their development wrapped in a mantle of holiness.

This mini-course will be taught by Prof. emer. Richard Kieckhefer of Northwestern University. Prof. Kieckhefer holds joint appointments in the Religion and History Department. His research focuses on late medieval religious culture, including mystical theology, magic, witchcraft, and church architecture in relationship to parish religion. He is the author of the standard text on medieval magic, Magic in the Middle Ages, first published in 1989 and re-issued last year in a revised and expanded edition from Cambridge University Press.