Prayers and Protection: The Tower at Torba Reconsidered
Résumé
This article attempts to introduce a reconsideration regarding the murals at the tower at Torba. Firstly, it focus on its relatively scarce historiography, which can be explained by referring to the tower’s arduous history and its position within the context of the castrum’s rediscovery. By describing the iconography and layers of painted plaster within two decorated floors, one can discover that both chambers were originally painted in a single decorative campaign. Regarding the date of the murals, it is necessary to expand beyond the generic visual affinity between the illumination of a musician from the codex of Institutiones of Cassiodorus (Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, 660), and the murals. This interconnection is used to further the murals’ dating around the year 800. Finally, the choice to reuse the military structure in a new sacral context was deeply linked with the belief in the intercessory power of saints and their ability to protect the tower against corporeal as well as spiritual danger. This broadens our understanding of the wall paintings’ raison d’être and their function.