Between Fascination and Appropriation

From the Enlightenment to the twentieth century, northern Europeans rediscovered the medieval architecture of southern Italy. Shaped by both Western and Eastern cultures, this heritage inspired architects, offered scope for ideological interpretations, and called art-historical narratives into question. This book presents the first comprehensive study of the phenomenon. The region's multi-layered heritage — shaped by Western as well as Eastern cultures — became both a source of inspiration for innovative architectural designs and a projection surface for ideological interpretations and political claims. It challenged established canons and art-historical narratives and became a stage for exotic fascination, cultural appropriation, and national and imperial self-fashioning.