The National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona (MNAT), the Institut Superior de Ciències Religioses Sant Fructuós (ISCR-INSAF) and the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià (AUSP) presented last thursday 4th of April the publication that compiles the records of the Congress El monument tardoromà de Centcelles: Dades, context, propostes. The book, that is included in the collection Studia Archaeologiae Christianae of the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià, allows to recover the presentations and other contributions resulting from the congress held in 2022, which have the objective of deepen the knowledge on this late-Roman monument.
The presentation ceremony was attended by the director of the Serveis Territorials de Cultura in Tarragona, Lurdes Malgrat; the director of MNAT, Mònica Borrell; the director of ISCR-INSAF and co-editor of the work, Andreu Muñoz; the head of publications of the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià (AUSP) and also co-editor, Cristina Godoy, and the former rector of the AUSP, Armand Puig.
“From the MNAT we need to disseminate the heritage from a thorough knowledge and this congress allows us to move forward and face the lacks", explained Mònica Borrell during the event, who associated the impact of the event with the starting of the research project of the MNAT. The publication of the records implied "a reestructuration of the congress content in different blogs", according to co-edtior Cristina Godoy. This allows a multidisciplinary aproximation to a monument which is "beauty, fascination and enigma", according to co-editor Andreu Muñoz. "Centcelles is a monument that we should not understand univocally, but in development", concluded Armand Puig.
They cover, among others, the history of research on the monument, the topographical and historical context of its construction, the architecture and iconography of the mosaic of the dome. In addition, it recovers some of the contributions brought up from the scientific debate during the congress, as well as the personal conclusions of the former rector of the AUSP and president of the Agency for the Verification and Promotion of the Quality of Teaching in Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties in the Vatican, Armand Puig.
International specialists
Celebrated between the 28th and the 30th of June of 2022 at Centcelles and at Centre Tarraconense El Seminari, the congress had as a main objective to give a new impulse to the scientific knowledge and dissemination of Centcelles. With the participation of almost thirty specialists of research centers and universities of all around Europe, the congress gathered also the hypotheses on the different questions raised by the monument up until today that affect to aspects such as dating and its function.
The event had the collaboration of the Pontificio Istituto de Archeología Cristiana (PIAC), the support of Diputació de Tarragona, the Arquebisbat de Tarragona, the Ajuntament de Tarragona, the Ajuntament de Constantí, Repsol and the Fundació Privada Mútua Catalana, and the collaboration of the Institut Català d'Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC), the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC), the Reial Acadèmia de les Bones Lletres, the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi, the Reial Societat Arqueològica Tarraconense (RSAT) and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV).
The book El monument tardoromà de Centcelles: Dades, context, propostes can be purchased through the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià online store and at the MNAT centers, the Archbishopric Bookstore and the Biblical Museum.
