Promotie M.P. Ritsema van Eck – Custodians of Sacred Space: Constructing the Franciscan Holy Land through Texts and Sacri Monti (ca. 1480-1650)

Throughout the later middle ages, Franciscans formed the only Catholic presence in Jerusalem and played a key role in receiving and conducting pilgrims from Western Europe. After the Ottoman reconquest of Jerusalem in 1571 and the Reformation that took place in Europe around the same time, the positions of the Franciscan friars changed significantly and they were gradually edged out of their headquarters on Mount Sion. Marianne Ritsema van Eck investigates how the friars responded to this new situation in their representations of the Holy Land, ranging from the late medieval period to the late seventeenth century.

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