L’accueil au sein des ensembles ecclésiastiques en Occident entre antiquité tardive et haut Moyen Âge : l’apport des témoignages matériels

[Machine translation] The article analyzes the structures of hospitality in ecclesiastical environments on a European scale, between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, by adopting a specific and still little practiced approach, namely the identification of archaeological markers that make it possible to recognize a space of hospitality. The subject poses numerous methodological challenges, which are highlighted and discussed through the examination of a few particularly significant cases, from Merida to San Paolo fuori le Mura, from Müstair to San Vincenzo al Volturno. Written sources (narrative, hagiographical, normative) are also taken into account, which in turn contribute to defining these particular places that deeply marked the urban and rural landscape of the High Middle Ages (and not only with regard to pilgrimage). From the study emerges a remarkable complexity of situations linked to the typology of the hosts received (poor and needy in general, foreigners, pilgrims, distinguished guests...) as well as to the context in which hospitality takes place, which may have specific needs (think of the numerous reserved spaces in monastic communities where lay people do not have access). The very type of reception provided (food distribution/hygiene/housing supply) is a factor capable of conditioning the organization of the guest space., The article combines written and archaeological sources, shedding new light on a subject such as hospitality, hospitality and the very structures in which this welcome is practiced, which the scientific community has debated extensively over the past few decades.