Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs. An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches

Several structural elements held fundamental importance in forming the architectural language of sacred space in the Middle Ages. The most important of these, although little studied in Italy, was the creation of varied roofing systems (wooden roofs, stone vaults, domes). The roof decisively conditioned the internal spatiality and assumed primary importance in conditioning the external form of the churches because the entire construction was based on the shape that the roof would have. The aim of this book is to delve deeper into some case studies of Italian churches from the Middle Ages to the dawn of the Modern Era with a multidisciplinary perspective (architecture, art history, archaeology, archaeometry, restoration). This publication forms part of the activities of the CaMeRoofs (Cataloguing Medieval Roofs) project, coordinated by the University of Cyprus and funded by the European Commission under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (ID: 101104788).