| dc.description.abstract | This thesis explores the embodied topography of Mount Athos, emphasizing the conditions of
liminality – the nature of different kinds of boundaries and intermediate zones within it. Mount
Athos is a valuable case study of sacred topography, as it is one of the largest monastic
communities and an important pilgrimage destination. Its phenomenological examination in this
study highlights the importance of embodiment in the experience of religious places advocating
also for a deeper understanding of the boundaries in it. The thesis seeks to convey a more
primary insight into the phenomena found there, examining also how ritual and pre-reflective
embodied movements explore the topography in a meaningful way.
Combining elements of
different disciplines (philosophy, theology, anthropology, and architectural history and theory)
with primary sources from archives and fieldwork, the thesis constitutes an original contribution
to both Athonian studies and sacred topography scholarship. By focusing on the spatial,
temporal and aural boundaries and intermediate zones as perceptual phenomena of an
embodied topography, it suggests an alternative to the usual art-historical, objectifying
examination of the case study.
Liminality refers to the intermediate zones between two or more components of a sacred place.
It allows the reciprocal communication between them, carrying the character of both departure
and return. In using liminality as a focus of investigation, the thesis provides a new
understanding of the way religious places are interconnected through cyclical rituals, the
strangers’ travel and silent meditation. Following the archetype of the journey, these
movements are also studied according to their particular power to “map” places in a more
primary way than the modern cartographic method. Starting from the periphery of Athos, the
study presents a variety of in-between zones, the passage through which contributes to the
sensual realization of a multi-layered meaningful topography. Annual pilgrimages to the peak of
the mountain, silent meditation in isolated caves, wandering asceticism and walking along the
footpaths provide different ways to narrate the natural landscape of the peninsula. Moreover,
ritual choreographies being inscribed in the courtyard and church of a coenobitic monastery,
meals and death services ritually perform the place. Through their investigation, this study
illuminates important aspects of the topography, such as its multi-sensual aural environment in
which silence plays a key role. The analysis concludes that the different liminal zones of Mount
Athos are always undergoing a condition of penetration, alteration, and even violation, allowing
the integrity of the topography to be enacted. | en |
