Université de Fribourg

Historical and archaeological analysis of the Church of the Nativity

Bacci, Michele ; Bianchi, Giovanna ; Campana, Stefano ; Fichera, Giuseppe

In: Journal of Cultural Heritage, 2012, vol. 13, p. 5-26

The team has considered the special status of the Basilica of Bethlehem, which is not just a monument of outstanding historic and artistic importance, but also and fundamentally a holy place, that has long been and is still perceived as a memorial site, marking the place of Christ’s birth and transcribing into a sacred topography the main events of the Gospel narratives. Because of such a...

Université de Fribourg

Old Restorations and New Discoveries in the Nativity Church, Bethlehem

Bacci, Michele

In: Convivium : exchanges and interactions in the arts of medieval Europe, Byzantium, and the Mediterranean, 2015, vol. 2, no. 2, p. 36-59

Since 2010 the Nativity Church in Bethlehem underwent a number of significant restoration works, including the refurbishing of the wooden roof, the consolidation of the Armenian door, and, starting from March 2015, the cleaning and consolidation of the mosaic surfaces. This recent work lead to important discoveries, including the recovery of the figure of an angel which had been hidden under the...

Université de Fribourg

Local Cults and their Integration into Bethlehem's Sacred Landscape in the Late Medieval and Modern Periods

Bacci, Michele

In: Bethlehem. A Sociocultural History, 2020, p. 25-40

The paper is a post-print version of an article originally published in Mitri Raheb (ed.), "Bethlehem. A Sociocultural History", Bethlehem: Diyar Publishers, 2020, p. 25-40, though without the illustrations presented here. It analyses the dynamics by which the kinetic dimension of pilgrimage contributed to invest the landscape associated with the way leading from Jerusalem to Bethlehem with...