Loca Deserta', 'Silvae Condensae' and 'Abrupta Montium
How Crusaders Viewed Nature in the Balkans
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3407655 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Svetlana Luchitskaya (0000-0001-9903-9156, Institute of World History, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 830 |
| Publication date | 2023-06-25 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel14070830 |
| OpenAlex | W4382134106 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 6 |
The Crusaders who followed Via militaris or Via Egnatia to the Holy Land traversed the vast and more or less unknown region of the Balkans, where they found themselves in an unfamiliar natural environment. This article explores the physical and psychological effects experienced by the Crusaders in this environment as recorded in their chronicles and accounts of pilgrimages. The purpose of this study is to investigate how nature affected the Crusaders and what they thought about it. When chroniclers write about nature in the Balkans, they emphasize its desolation, inaccessibility and remoteness from any established society and civilization. The portrayals of the wild and treacherous environment align with the stories about the Balkan people and their brutish customs, "barbarous" language, and way of life. Overall, these descriptions are based on the contrasting concepts of 'nature' and 'culture', 'barbarism' and 'civilization', 'chaos' and 'order', and so forth
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Barbarism · Civilization · Literature · Byzantine Studies and History · History · Philosophy · Religious Tourism and Spaces
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |