From the Ruine to the Historic Monument - The process of becoming a National Heritage using the example of Cistercian minasteries in England

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Jens Rüffer
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 509793488

Under to rule of King Henry VIII. († 1547), between 1536 and 1539, all english monasteries were dissolved and their mobile and immobile properties were radically exploited. Over the years, in the longue durée, the abbeys lost their religious significance, namely institutionally, spiritually as well as architecturally. The central question of this study is how the ruined abbeys became a historic monument of national importance. This study approaches the topic from a cultural historical perspective and that of historical scholarship. It focuses on a small group of objects within one county: the Yorkshire Cistercian Abbeys of Byland, Fountains, Kirkstall, Rievaulx and Roche. The focus on one geographic historic region allows not only a dense description. It permits also to demonstrate the eminent role of the social and institutional networks (antiquaries, learned societies) in establishing the accumulation of historical meaning. In this study therefore I am not so much interested in what was written when by whom about these objects. I rather wish to work out, how and by which means this knowledge was developed, how it has generated a nationwide meaning in order to create a social impact in terms of a national cultural heritage. In this process of accumulating meaning interlock factual, emotional and aesthetic arguments, which became manifest in historical scholarly and literary texts as well as in visual depictions. These sources are of documentary and artistic nature. The time frame ranges from the Dissolution to the Ancient Monument Act of 1913 that permitted the preservation of historic buildings of national importance also against the interests of the proprietor. However, the emphasis is laid on the 18th and 19th centuries. This study is divided in five chapters: (1) The Beginning of the End – Secularisation and Privatisation; (2) From the Ruin to the Pictoresque – Literature and Illustrations (c. 1650-c. 1850); (3) Antiquaries & Learned Societies in the 19th century; (4) Professional Conducted Building Surveys and Architectural Historical Analysis (c. 1850–1913); (5) Tourism and Guide Books – The Popularisation of Medieval History in the 19th Century.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants