ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the ideas with reference to Winchester, a major royal and episcopal centre during the earlier Middle Ages that might be expected to show some evidence of symbolic intent in its topography. The Winchester dedications to Maurice, Pantaleon and Lawrence seem rather to reflect the important connection between the West Saxon royal house and the Saxon rulers of Germany, especially the emperor Otto the Great. The argument, which assesses only a few of the medieval city's symbolic landscapes which seem intended as expressions of its special standing as a site of authority and worship. The chapter shows that the meaning and intent from spatial forms and are attended by the usual limitations of that approach, made more hazardous by the obscure and fragmentary nature of the evidence. The cities of medieval Europe were no exception, Jerusalem and Rome—'The Two Cities' —offering powerful models of perfection, or, respectively, of heaven and hell.
