Our first paper (peer reviewed and Open Access) was just published: Makhortykh, S., Mödlinger, M., Utz, J. (2023). The 12th century Magdeburg bronze doors in Novgorod: an overview of Russian research. In: Kunstgeschichte. Open Peer Reviewed Journal, 2023: 605. (urn:nbn:de:bvb:355-kuge-605-0). Due to obvious reasons we could not document the bronze doors in Novgorod so instead we focused on the … More First paper published: Novgorod

In close cooperation with our colleagues from the CNR from Perugia, Firenze and Catania and thanks to E-RIHS.it we are back to Venice in March 2023 in order to study the inlays of the two bronze doors from San Marco. So far, we could individuate six different types of inlays through our previous XRF-analyses in … More Venice, again: let’s look at the inlays!

In 2023 we will complete the field documentation of the bronze doors: in May we plan to document the Gniezno doors and in June we will study the doors of San Paolo fuori le Mura and the Battistero Lateranense in Rome. Unfortunately, under the present circumstances, we do not see any possibility of studying the … More …news for 2023

In Dicember we visited again Hildesheim, this time for XRF-analyses only. About 500 non-invasive analyses were carried out: not only the front side, but especially the back side of the door was analysed in a raster with measurement points every 20×20 cm, in order to obtain further information about the casting technology applied.

In November 2022, we have been documenting the bronze doors from Casauria, Montecassino and – again, this time for XRF-analyses only – Benevento and the three lion head door pullers from Sepino. Many panels of the doors from Casauria unfortunately are lost today, or stored in other museums. They were substituted on-site with painted, wooden … More Montecassino, Casauria, Benevento e Sepino

The end of October 2022 is dedicated to four bronze doors in Sicily. At the cathedral of Monreale, we will document the doors of Barisano di Trani (who also made the doors of Ravello and Trani) and Bonanno, who is responsible for the doors in Pisa. Bonanno’s door is the largest of all bronze doors … More Sicily: Palermo and Monreale

In July, we are going to Germany to document the three bronze doors in Hildesheim, Mainz and Augsburg. While the first two are massive bronze doors, the door from Augsburg was made as most of the Italian doors of bronze plates mounted to a wooden base. We will keep you updated how things proceed!

Beginning of June we have been in Troia to document the two doors of Oderisius di Benevento. While the smaller side door is in the tradition of byzantine doors, the main door of the cathedral is something unique and almost fantasy-like with dragons and dragon heads. Truly fascinating, especially from a technological point of view! … More Benevento, Troia e Sepino

This month’s research trip lead us to another one of Barisano’s doors in Trani. To protect the original door, a copy was placed on the outside of the cathedral so we could quietly work on the original inside the cathedral, while outside the festivities of the Croce di Colonna with lots of fire works were … More Puglia: Trani, Canosa and Monte Sant’Angelo

The last two weeks of March 2022 were dedicated to the documentation of the four bronze doors of the Amalfi coast: Amalfi, Atrani, Ravello and Salerno. While the door from Ravello was made by Barisano di Trani, the other three derive are of byzantine origin. Unfortunately, none of the doors still has the original wooden … More Amalfi coast