This conference explores the central question: How do the senses—understood as the full range of sensorial experiences—constitute the sacred at court as an active and creative process? Bringing together scholars from different disciplines, it examines how sacred space in early modern courts was produced, perceived, and transformed through inter-sensorial experience and performative practice.
Particular attention will be given to the ways ritual sought to overwhelm the senses, and how visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and spatial dimensions interacted to create powerful sacred atmospheres. The conference also investigates how liturgical practices at court permeated and reshaped spaces beyond the strictly defined sacred area, generating “trans-religious” environments. By considering the differing sensory experiences of various courtly audiences, participants will reflect on how the sacred was seen, heard, smelled, and embodied in distinct ways.
Date: 21-23 September 2026
Location: Slovak University of Technology (STU), Bratislava
Organizers: Andrea Vargová (STU), Monika Rychtáriková (KU Leuven/STU), Magdaléna Kvasnicová (STU), Vojtech Chmelík (STU)
The conference is for free and open to everyone!
To attend, first of all, please join us as a member of SENSES (by joining a working group). This step is obligatory in roder to be officially invited to attend through the COST system.
Secondly, send an email with your full name and affiliatioin to the organizers: andrea.vargova@stuba.sk, anezka.kasiarova@stuba.sk, vojtech.chmelik@stuba.sk, krista.dejonge@kuleuven.be.
Monday September 21, 2026
Venue: Pálffy Palace, Zámocká Street 47, Bratislava
| 9.00-9.30 | Welcome with coffee | |
| 9.30-10.00 | Opening statements | Prof. Ing. Stanislav Unčík, PhD (Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology), Konrad Ottenheym (Utrecht University, Chair of the COST Action), Krista De Jonge (KU Leuven, Chair of the SENSES Working Group SACRED) |
| 10.00-10.30 | Introduction: Creating the Sacred at Court. Sensorial Practices and Experiences | Joanna Olchawa (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) |
| 10.30-10.40 | Short break |
Session 1 (Chair: Krista De Jonge, KU Leuven)
| 10.40-11.10 | Performing the Sacred in Rome’s National Churches | Émilie Corswarem (Université de Liège) |
| 11.10-11.40 | Staging Death: Music, Ritual, and Inter-Sensorial Experience in Viceregal Palermo | Ilaria Grippaudo (Università di Palermo) |
| 11.40-12.20 | Sacralizing the Sovereign Body: Thrones and Sensory Authority in Early Modern Court Residences | F. Serra İnan (ETH Zürich) |
| 12.20-12.45 | Discussion |
12.45-13.30 lunch break (snacks)
13.30-14.15 brief visit of the historic spaces in Pálffy Palace
Session 2 (Chair : Barbara Arciszewska, Uniwersytet Warszawski)
| 14.15-14.45 | From Dusting to Singing: Staging the Sacred at the German-Hungarian College under Gregory XIII | Marta Battisti (UC Louvain) |
| 14.45-15.15 | Deprivation in the Wilderness, Delight in Paradise: the Multiple Facets of Sensory Experience in Spiritual Detachment at the Carmelite Desert in Marlagne (1619) | Anne-Françoise Morel (KU Leuven) |
| 15.15-15.45 | A Courtly Chapel Revealed | Nuno Senos (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) |
| 15.45-16.15 | Coffee break | |
| 16.16-16.45 | Practices of Private Devotion and Oratories as Spaces of Consumption: a Sensory Reading of Women’s Inventories from 16th–17th century Spain | Joanna Ciemińska (Museum of Art, Łódź) |
| 16.45-17.15 | Aristocratic visits, music, and visual culture in the Convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli in 17th Century Siena | Giulia Giovani (Università di Siena) |
| 17.15-17.45 | Discussion |
Tuesday September 22, 2026
Venue: Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Block A of the Faculty of Civil Engineering (see the attached plan)
Session 3 (Chair: Stephan Hoppe, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
| 09.30-10.00 | Creating the Sacred through Decor: Chapels, Oratories and AI-Based Simulation in Late Medieval Loire Court Spaces | Mathis Vauxion (Université de Nantes), Élouarn Le Chenadec (École Centrale de Nantes) |
| 10.00-10.30 | From Champmol to Germolles: The Formation of Ducal Identity across Sacred Courtly Spaces in Late Medieval Burgundy | Olivia B. Weber (University of Texas at Austin) |
| 10.30-11.00 | coffee break | |
| 11.00-11.30 | Sacred Echoes: Reconstructing the Lost Sacred Spaces and their Soundscape of the 14th-century Royal Residences in Valois France | Vincent Vanhamme (KU Leuven), Yannick Sluyts (independent researcher), Monika Rychtariková (KU Leuven), Krista De Jonge (KU Leuven) |
| 11.30-12.00 | Challenges in Recording Anechoic Sound for Archaeo-Acoustic Research Related to Court Residences as a Multisensory Environment | David Jun (Brno University of Technology) |
| 12.00-12.30 | Discussion |
12.30-13.30 lunch break (snacks)
Session 4 (Chair: Bernardo J. García García, Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
| 13.30-14.00 | Sacred Soundings at Mary of Hungary’s Court. Exploring the Binche Palace (1547-1549) Soundscape with Digital Tools | Krista De Jonge (KU Leuven), Camilla Cavicchi (Centre d’Études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours), Philippe Vendrix (CNRS France), Monika Rychtariková (KU Leuven) |
| 14.00-14.30 | Sacred Senses in Courtly Spaces: The Ceremonial of the Portuguese Royal Chapel through the Manuscript of D. Maria of Portugal in the Ducal Court of Parma | Milton Pedro Dias Pacheco (Palace of the Dukes of Braganza, Guimarães) |
| 14.30-15.00 | The Eucharist and the Dynasty: The High Altar Area of El Escorial as an Operative Spatial Order | Benjamin Dörr (FH Berlin, Potsdam) |
| 15.00-15.30 | Demonstrating the Temple of Solomon at the Prussian Court in 1720 | Eelco Nagelsmit (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Hertziana Rome) |
| 15.30-16.00 | Discussion |
16.00-16.30 coffee break
16.30-19.00 Magdalena Krasniková (Slovak University of Technology) and others, Bratislava Old City walk: the Palaces
Wednesday September 23, 2026
Venue: Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Block A of the Faculty of Civil Engineering (see the attached plan)
Session 5 (Chair: Christa Syrer, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
| 09.00-09.30 | The Daily Choreography of Power: Ritual Time and Movement in the Doge’s Palace of Venice as Hybrid Sacred Spaces | Hee-Sook Lee-Niniioja (independent researcher) |
| 09.30-10.00 | Exposure Duration. Time and Duration of Early Modern Rituals in Palaces | Pedro Manuel Luengo Gutiérrez (Universidad de Sevilla) |
| 10.00-10.30 | coffee break | |
| 10.30-11.00 | Quantifying Polyphonic Singing at the Sainte-Chapelle du Palais around 1700: Towards an Understanding of the Interactions between the Musical and Visual Ornamentation of the Liturgy | Gaëtan Naulleau (Centre d’Études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) |
| 11.00-11.30 | Staging Sacred Authority: Ritual, Sensory Experience, and Sovereignty in the Acclamation of Rafael Cotoner (Malta, 1660) | Bartomeu Martínez Oliver(Universitat de lles Iles Balears) |
| 11.30-12.00 | Humbling the King before the Lord, Sensing the Sacred of the Coronation: A Liturgical Perspective on the Vow of Louis XIII and its Reenactment under Louis XIV | Alysée Le Druillenec (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, UC Louvain), Nils Renard (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| 12.00-12.40 | Discussion | |
| 12.40-13.00 | Comments and provisional conclusions | Raphael Rosenberg (Universität Wien) |
13.00-13.45 lunch break (snacks)
14.15-16.15 working session (with visit) at Bratislava Castle (Hrad), with Renate Leggatt-Hofer (independent researcher) and Štefan Holčík (archaeologist and historian)
17.00 administrative meeting: (only for SENSES core group), Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Block A of the Faculty of Civil Engineering.
