Churches at a Crossroads: Assessing a Rural Sacred Landmark in Central Sicily (Sixth to Twelfth Centuries AD)

ABSTRACT Archaeological research conducted in Sicily is increasingly turning to the study of the Medieval settled landscape and its road networks. However, the study of Late Roman/Early Medieval rural churches, and how they fit and figure in the landscape, remains a theme underdeveloped in comparison with other Mediterranean islands, where the theory of ‘landmark churches’ has been forged through the combination of archaeological, environmental, and spatial analyses. This study aims to apply a similar approach to Sicily, using the newly discovered church of San Nicola and its surrounding settled landscape as a case-study. It will be argued that this monument functioned as a physical and likely symbolic landmark in this wider settled landscape, acting as a means of orientation along the roads of the island interior, and influencing settlement patterns in specific historical periods of rural settlement growth and/or crisis.