ABSTRACT
The earliest studies of medieval archaeology and architecture during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Britain were intimately linked to broader currents of contemporary life expressed through poetry, prose, painting, gardens and buildings. Concepts of “Gothic” fed to a fascination with the medieval past which encouraged the connoisseurship of objects and architecture and fed into cultural nationalism. Romantic aesthetics and antiquarian activities were especially intertwined, encouraging emotional sensitivity to sites, providing locales for a new genre of writing, the production of guide books, speculation over chronology and a preference for opening tombs. The concept of “Picturesque” further influenced visual and aesthetic appreciation through “the tour”, contemplative itineraries of medieval sites. Most of all it was the Gothic Revival which led to new archaeological discoveries when churches were affected by restoration projects. Interests in the medieval decorative arts were boosted at the same time. The excavations at Santiago in 1879 should be understood in the context of this revival in medievalism which affected all of Europe at this time, perhaps in networks of scholars with particular interests in “Christian archaeology”.
