Conques has been an important node, a singularity within many entangled histories from late antiquity to the present. This volume publishes papers expanding on the second conference of the project “Conques in the Global World. Transferring Knowledge: from Material to Immaterial Heritage” (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange H2020). Held in October 2023 at the Centre européen in Conques, the workshop brought together international experts from a variety of disciplines and geographies, indicating the directions future studies of this site might take and reflecting on its material, literary, and historiographical legacy.

The collected essays in this volume reflect scholarly and artistic fascination with Conques. They question, open, and reopen important dossiers, bringing fresh insights and perspectives on the site’s material, literary, and performative culture. These range from Bernard of Angers’s Miracles of Sainte Foy and the scholarly reception of this text to charged discussions of the architectural sources and models for the abbey-church and its role in regional and interregional dynamics. From the heated architectural history, the essays segue into the other hot topic of Conques: rethinking the elusive Majesty of Sainte Foy. Essays examine its fabrication history, its specific perception during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and its staging and geographical anchoring. These analyses give way to an essay devoted to Conques’ nineteenth-century reconstruction. The present volume closes with a text devoted to the mediation of medieval literary culture within contemporary contexts. In their disciplinary diversity, this volume unites scholarly traditions, opening new avenues for the study of a medieval site which, through its entangled histories, captivates scholars around the world.

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