Beyond the Visible

A talk with Professor Maria Chiara Giorda, Roma Tre University

Since 1870, when Rome became the capital of the newly unified Kingdom of Italy, the city's urban and religious fabric has undergone a deep and ongoing reconfiguration. The settlement of new religious communities introduced architectural and symbolic innovations that gradually shaped a new form of urban religious heritage, one that cannot be reduced to its visible and material dimension. Alongside buildings, liturgical objects, and ritual spaces, this heritage is equally constituted by elements that are too often left aside: sounds, music, scents, languages, and practices carrying dense cultural and spiritual significance.

Drawing on a theoretical framework that approaches religious heritage as a composite and sensory phenomenon, this contribution develops a historical-ethnographic reading centered on visibility, memory, and recognition in the contemporary city. It argues for an understanding of urban religious heritage as a dynamic, stratified field, traversed by tensions between innovation and tradition, marginalization and integration, materiality and immateriality.

Contact info: Astrid Krabbe Trolle, a.trolle@hum.ku.dk

Everyone is welcome!