Castles at War AD 1000-1660

Castles at War AD 1000-1660

29th and 30th April 2013
Nyborg Castle, Funen, Denmark

The symposium will focus on the political and military aspects of castles in medieval warfare, in particular during the period AD 1000–1660. Castles were strongholds of vital military importance and played a central role in the political strategies of the rulingelite. The role of castles in medieval warfare has long been considered a topic primarily for a narrow circle of specialists in military history, while historians have generally focussed on the broader social, economic and political aspects of castles and archaeologists focused on the structural aspects and excavations of particular sites. The picture is changing, however, and both historians and archaeologists are starting to recognise decisive importance of castles in medieval warfare.

See program.

Medieval Denmark

Medieval Denmark

Denmark probably has the largest amount of medieval wall paintings in Europe. In Danish they are called Kalkmalerier = Chalk paintings, as they are painted on a layer of limewash.
Denmark has about 1700 preserved medieval churches. Most of them has probably been decorated with wall paintings. Today we have about 600 churches with visible paintings and there are probably many undiscovered paintings behind the many layers of limewash which was used during the 18th and 19th centuries to cover the paintings. The oldest paintings from 1100-1300 are of Romanesque type and were painted by painters imported from south Europe, but during 1300 - 1600 it changed to a Gothic style and Danish painters took over and developed their own style.
During the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th century, some of the pintings were destroyed but fortunatelly most of them was just covered with a layer of whitewash
During the 19th and 20th century these cultural treasures has been rediscovered. Some of them as late as during the last centuries.

go to the site:http://www.panoramas.dk/church-murals/index.html