1 January 2026
Contemporary written sources on Romanesque art from Scandinavian countries are rare. The artefacts have to speak for themselves. And so they do. The Normans were pagans until the eleventh century. In 1100, Denmark and Norway were largely Christianized; it took Sweden some fifty years longer. They were masters in wood carving, but stone sculpture was … Read more » “The Most European Century and the Vikings”
1 January 2026
The Norwegian kingdom was established in the ninth century and converted to Christianity under King Olaf (995-1030). The looters of monasteries became committed builders of splendid stone cathedrals across Europe. Norman crusaders also introduced Norman art into the Middle East. The great importance of artistic development in Norway lay in the extensive construction of wooden … Read more » “The Viking and Norwegian Roots of Europe”
1 January 2026
The grand event in the tenth century was the re-establishment of the empire in Western Europe after the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in the period after 887. The dismemberment of this Empire, founded by Charlemagne in 800, was marked by an extreme political fragmentation. Eastern Francia, the German territories, extended from the left and … Read more » “Sarajevo and Henry the Fowler”
1 January 2026
The Roman Empire had established itself as the dominant power in the Mediterranean by the 1st century BC. Its appetite for further expansion was checked under the Emperors Augustus, Tiberius and Hadrianus (1st century BC to 2nd century AD). Trajan (98-117 AD) was the last emperor to focus on large territorial expansion. Large barbarian alliances … Read more » “The Creation of Europe”
1 January 2026
One of the outcomes of the Congress of Vienna was a diplomatic conference of the Rhine riparian states and, in the Final Act, the principle of freedom of navigation on international waterways. The provisions concerning the river Rhine held the creation of a Central Commission in order to ensure a precise control of the enforcement … Read more » “Intergovernmental European Success”