11th Maciej Kilarski Malbork Meetings Research Conference

11th Maciej Kilarski Malbork Meetings Research Conference – ‘Conservation Practices in Mediaeval Churches’

Karwan Conference Centre, Malbork Castle Museum, 17 October 2024

The Malbork Castle Museum presents the latest instalment in the Malbork Meetings series. Maciej Kilarski, the patron of the conference, has gone down in the history of the Malbork Castle Museum, which was established in 1961. His research and conservation efforts had a lasting impact on the castle space. Malbork Meetings have been organised in his honour since 2004 as an expression of respect and gratitude for Kilarski’s years of work as a member of the Museum Council, artefact conservator, art historian, and especially a researcher of Malbork Castle architecture. Maciej Kilarski wrote many research articles and monographs, some of which pertained to the castle itself. This is why Malbork Meetings serve as a forum for presenting the results of research in the fields of history, art history, culture and conservation.

The 11th edition of the conference deals with the challenges that accompany conserving mediaeval religious buildings. We invite all practitioners and theoreticians to discuss conservation efforts, be it architecture or equipment, past or present, although not older than the 19th century, which saw the beginning of large-scale efforts aimed at preserving and emphasising certain stylistic features of historical buildings. The trend known as regothicisation that began in Europe in the early 19th century varied in scope and impact. As a result, certain controversial efforts are also relevant in this context, as projects marketed as ‘renovation’ or ‘conservation’ could lead to the concealment or even destruction of original elements. Other topics of discussion include innovative research and conservation methods, as well as the idea of preventive conservation.

The topics were not chosen at random. The parish church of St John in Malbork, which directly neighbours the castle, is currently being renovated, and in nearby Kwidzyn, there are plans to completely renovate the local cathedral. The organisers of the conference decided that it would be interesting to compare these projects to past conservation efforts and other contemporary cases.

Please submit your participation requests by 31 May 2024. For organisational reasons, please use a Participant Sheet.

If the number of submissions is high, we will conduct a selection of papers to be presented.

Presented papers will be published.

The person responsible for the conference is Bartosz Skop, who is happy to help you with all organisational matters [b.skop@zamek.malbork.pl]

We would be grateful for promoting the conference in your community.

See you there

The organisers