The Nunnery in an Urban Environment

Our project aims at studying the impact of the implantation of both male and female monasteries in the medieval urban space. Our tools are GIS and historical and present-day cartographic databases, and our geographic focus is on Southern Italy (in particular Naples and Palermo). We are specially interested in the analysis of both the impact of monasteries on the topography of these cities, and their relation to other urban elements such as the layout of the walls, the location of the wall's gates, the position of the public spaces and centres of power, and the supply of resources.