ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author hope to pay tribute to Alexei Lidov’s generative concept of hierotopy by bringing into greater relief the dimension of sacred time in the creation of sacred space. The author argue that since the human experience at large and Christian religious experience, in particular, are spatiotemporal, with dimensions of place and time thoroughly interwoven, it is useful to expand the notion of hierotopy (sacred space) into that of hierochronotopy (sacred-time-space). The author briefly discusses spatiotemporal integration in human and specifically Christian medieval religious experience and considers chronotopic dimensions embodied by gates and trees in the symbolic universe of medieval Christianity. Finally, the author discusses the hierochronotopy of Bonanno’s door by analyzing the possible meanings of trees depicted on it and behind it (inside the cathedral). For the purpose of this chapter, the author define the concept of hierochronotopy as the essential integration of temporal and spatial dimensions in human approaches to the sacred.
