Researchers based in the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies have been awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant
Two researchers based in the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies have been awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant for their project At the Crossroads of Empires: the Longobard Church of Sant’Ambrogio at Montecorvino Rovella (Salerno), Italy.
Dr Francesca Dell'Acqua, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow and Dr Daniel Reynolds, a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, will collaborate with Professor Mike Robinson, Director of the Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage, on the project which will conduct an archaeological survey and historical analysis of the early medieval church of Sant’Ambrogio at Montecorvino Rovella near Salerno, Italy.
The church, discovered in the late 1970s, is one of the best surviving examples of Langobard church architecture and contains one of the earliest images of the Theotokos, St Mary, the mother of God, in western Europe. The project will also work alongside the local community in Montecorvino to raise awareness of the church’s history and to assist in the promotion of the site to visitors and tourists. In addition, the project will lay the ground work for an application to incorporate Sant’Ambrogio in the UNESCO World Heritage list “Italia Langobardorum.”
