Fortified Settlements in Early Medieval Europe by Christie Neil; Herold Hajnalka;

Author:Christie, Neil; Herold, Hajnalka;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4572875
Publisher: Oxbow Books, Limited
Published: 2016-03-06T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 11.7. San Vincenzo al Volturno in the later 11th century (Image drawn by Sarah Leppard).

The second phase of the attack involved the raiders, having crossed the Volturno, forcing the doors of the Collective Workshop immediately south of the abbey-church, before comprehensively destroying it, then breaking into San Vincenzo Maggiore. Yet the firing of the workshops involved setting fire to each room, rather than forcing ingress through Room B to the vaulted corridor leading into the claustrum. The destruction almost certainly occurred after the rooms were ransacked. Clearly the raiders sought out the precious and prestigious goods being made in these workshops – enamels, ivories and silverware. While the Chronicle describes the wanton festivities of the raiders in the basilica, the archaeology has found only limited traces of damage (though 11th-century refurbishments may well have removed most of this) (Marazzi 2011, 135).

However the sack itself proceeded, some aspects are clearer now that much of the claustrum has been excavated. First, the raiders focussed their attention upon the abbot, whose house may have then been the venue for elite reception at the monastery. More importantly, the house may have held the monastery’s treasury, which, if it resembled that of nearby Monte Cassino (robbed in 843 – Citarella and Willard 1983), would have been a special prize for the attackers. Second, the Collective Workshop was evidently targetted: its contents, including enamels and silver inlaid jewellery, may even have been the raiders’ principal objective. Finally, it is very clear that the cult centre of San Vincenzo in the annular crypt was not desecrated, nor, seemingly, was the palace, perhaps because this was already deserted and empty of fittings. The annular crypt was the sacred nexus of the monastery and leaving it untouched meant that San Vincenzo al Volturno might be re-established as a monastery, as indeed happened in the 11th century.

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