Creating the Sacred at Court. Sensorial Practices and Experiences in Europe (1300–1800)

International Conference

Organisation: COST Action 24164: Sensing Europe’s Court Spaces at the Crossroads of Past, Present and Future (SENSES) and Slovak University of Technology

Programme

Monday September 21, 2026
Venue: Pálffy Palace, Zámocká Street 47, Bratislava

9.00-9.30 am Welcome with coffee
9.30-10.00 am Prof. Ing. Stanislav Unčík, PhD (Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology), Konrad Ottenheym (Utrecht University, Chair of the COST Action), Krista De Jonge (KU Leuven, Chair of the Senses Working Group SACRED), Opening statements
10.00-10.30 am Joanna Olchawa (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München), Introduction: Creating the Sacred at Court. Sensorial Practices and Experiences
10.30-10.40 am short break

Session 1 (Chair: Krista De Jonge, KU Leuven)
10.40-11.10 am Émilie Corswarem (Université de Liège), Performing the Sacred in Rome’s National Churches
11.10-11.40 am Ilaria Grippaudo (Università di Palermo), Staging Death: Music, Ritual, and Inter-Sensorial Experience in Viceregal Palermo
11.40-12.20 pm F. Serra İnan (ETH Zürich), Sacralizing the Sovereign Body: Thrones and Sensory Authority in Early Modern Court Residences
12.20-12.45 pm discussion Session 1
12.45-01.30 pm lunch break
01.30-02.15 pm brief visit of the historic spaces in the Pálffy Palace

Session 2 (Chair: Barbara Arciszewska, Uniwersytet Warszawski)
02.15-02.45 pm Marta Battisti (UC Louvain), Staging the Brightness of the Roman Church: Sensorial Practices at Santo Stefano Rotondo under Gregory XIII
02.45-03.15 pm Anne-Françoise Morel (KU Leuven), Deprivation in the Wilderness, Delight in Paradise: the Multiple Facets of Sensory Experience in Spiritual Detachment at the Carmelite Desert in Marlagne (1619)
03.15-03.45 pm Nuno Senos (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), A Courtly Chapel Revealed
03.45-04.15 pm coffee break
04.15-04.45 pm Joanna Ciemińska (Museum of Art, Łódź), Practices of Private Devotion and Oratories as Spaces of Consumption: a Sensory Reading of Women’s Inventories from 16th–17th century Spain
04.45-05.15 pm Giulia Giovani (Università di Siena), Aristocratic visits, music, and visual culture in the Convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli in 17th Century Siena
05.15-05.45 pm discussion Session 2

Tuesday September 22, 2026
Venue: Slovak University of Technology, Block A of the Faculty of Civil Engineering

Session 3 (Chair: Stephan Hoppe, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
09.30-10.00 am Mathis Vauxion (Université de Nantes), Élouarn Le Chenadec (École Centrale de Nantes), Creating the Sacred through Decor: Chapels, Oratories and AI-Based Simulation in Late Medieval Loire Court Spaces
10.00-10.30 am Olivia B. Weber (University of Texas at Austin), From Champmol to Germolles: The Formation of Ducal Identity across Sacred Courtly Spaces in Late Medieval Burgundy
10.30-11.00 coffee break
11.00-11.30 am Vincent Vanhamme (KU Leuven), Yannick Sluyts (independent researcher), Monika Rychtariková (KU Leuven), Krista De Jonge (KU Leuven), Sacred Echoes: Reconstructing the Lost Sacred Spaces and their Soundscape of the 14th-century Royal Residences in Valois France
11.30-12.00 pm David Jun (Brno University of Technology), Challenges in Recording Anechoic Sound for Archaeo-Acoustic Research Related to Court Residence as a Multisensory Environment
12.00-12.30 discussion Session 3
12.30-01.30 pm lunch break

Session 4 (Chair: Bernardo J. García García, Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
01.30-02.00 Krista De Jonge (KU Leuven), Camilla Cavicchi (Centre d’Études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours), Philippe Vendrix (CNRS France), Monika Rychtariková (KU Leuven), Sacred Soundings at Mary of Hungary’s Court. Exploring the Binche Palace (1547-1549) Soundscape with Digital Tools
02.00-02.30 pm Milton Pedro Dias Pacheco (Palace of the Dukes of Braganza, Guimarães), Sacred Senses in Courtly Spaces: The Ceremonial of the Portuguese Royal Chapel through the Manuscript of D. Maria of Portugal in the Ducal Court of Parma
02.30-03.00 pm Benjamin Dörr (FH Berlin, Potsdam), The Eucharist and the Dynasty: The High Altar Area of El Escorial as an Operative Spatial Order
03.00-03.30 pm Eelco Nagelsmit (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Hertziana Rome), Demonstrating the Temple of Solomon at the Prussian Court in 1720
03.30-04.00 pm discussion Session 4
04.00-04.30 pm coffee break
04.30 pm-07.00 pm Magdalena Krasniková (Slovak University of Technology) and Štefan Holčík (archaeologist and historian), Bratislava Old City walk: the Palaces

Wednesday September 23, 2026
Venue: Slovak University of Technology, Block A of the Faculty of Civil Engineering

Session 5 (Chair: Christa Syrer, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
09.00-09.30 am Hee-Sook Lee-Niniioja (independent researcher), The Daily Choreography of Power: Ritual Time and Movement in the Doge’s Palace of Venice as Hybrid Sacred Spaces
09.30-10.00 am Pedro Manuel Luengo Gutiérrez (Universidad de Sevilla), Exposure Duration. Time and Duration of Early Modern Rituals in Palaces
10.00-10.30 am coffee break
10.30-11.00 am Bartomeu Martínez Oliver (Universitat de Iles Balears), Staging Sacred Authority: Ritual, Sensory Experience, and Sovereignty in the Acclamation of Rafael Cotoner (Malta, 1660)
11.00-11.30 am Alysée Le Druillenec (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, UC Louvain), Nils Renard (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Humbling the King before the Lord, Sensing the Sacred of the Coronation: A Liturgical Perspective on the Vow of Louis XIII and its Reenactment under Louis XIV
11.30-12.15 pm discussion Session 5
12.15-12.30 pm Raphael Rosenberg (Universität Wien), Comments and Provisional Conclusions
01.00-01.45 pm lunch break
02.15-04.15 Working session (with visit) at Bratislava Castle (Hrad), with Renate Leggatt-Hofer (independent researcher) and Štefan Holčík (archaeologist and historian)

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The conference is for free and open to everyone!
To attend, first of all, please join us as a member of SENSES on https://cost-senses.eu/. This step is obligatory in order to be officially invited to attend through the COST system.
Secondly, send an email with your full name and affiliation to the organizers: andrea.vargovastuba.sk, anezka.kasiarovastuba.sk, vojtech.chmelikstuba.sk,
krista.dejongekuleuven.be.
Both steps are necessary.

Further information:
https://cost-senses.eu/activities/workshop-reconstructing-sensory-experiences-of-court-spaces/