The interdisciplinary research project ‘SALVEMED’ (FWF PAT 1390723, principal investigator: Werner Telesko (Austrian Academy of Sciences/IHB) started on 1 October 2024 and is scheduled to conclude in three years. As a national cooperation partner, IMAREAL contributed to the project’s design and is going to participate actively in terms of archaeological as well as historical competencies. The project’s primary focus lies in the examination of the material culture of early modern pilgrimages, with a particular emphasis on the representation of pilgrimage in media and its integration into specific religious practices.

The principal sources are objects such as books of mircales(„Mirakelbücher“), pilgrim’s badges and medals, religious images, rosaries and other devotional objects. Furthermore, account books that document the trade of devotional objects are catalogued and made accessible using methods from the Digital Humanities.
In this way, the project captures the economic dimension of the Catholic practice of pilgrimage.

In addition to the methods and research approaches from the participating disciplines of Art History, History and Archaeology, approaches of Social and Media Studies will be employed, as well as approaches from Tourist Studies.

The research will examine three case studies, each representing a distinct type of Baroque pilgrimage. These are the pilgrimage sites of Sonntagberg (district of Amstetten), Maria Hietzing (Vienna) and Pyhra (district of St. Pölten-Land).