Professor Ian Campbell

Inaugural lecture of Professor Ian Campbell, 7 May 2012.

Event details

Lecture title: "Planning for Pilgrims: Parallels between St Andrews, Rome and Compostela in the Twelfth Century"

Date: 7 May 2012, 5pm

Venue: Auditorium lecture theatre, Business School

Lecture abstract

The burgh of St Andrews was laid out in the mid-twelfth century, on a grandiose scale, and to a different plan from the majority of contemporary burghs in Scotland, including Edinburgh.

The lecture will argue that it was deliberately modelled on the Vatican Borgo, the area between St Peter’s and the Tiber in Rome, which had been fortified in the ninth century AD.

At the time of the laying out of the burgh, the bishops of St Andrews were trying to elevate their status by using the relics of St Andrew, St Peter’s older brother, just as the bishops of Compostela had done earlier in the twelfth century, when they gained the title of ‘apostolic see’ for Santiago, putting it on a par with Jerusalem and Rome.

Lecture video