Le passé entre exécration et admiration: les ruines de l'empire et l'Europe médiéval.

In this article the author considers the ruin as the focus of contradictory positions of rejection and even loathing in the process of ‘the transfer of the empire’ (translatio imperii) in historical time. The author considers questions of continuity and rupture, with relation to the idea of ruins and grand monuments on the one hand, and living empires and changing circumstances on the other. The author comments on the relations among material remains, mental images, linguistic artefacts and other types of objects in the progressive move away from antiquity and towards the empires of Christianity. The author shows that the city remains a fluid, but steady, presence amidst historical change. The paper argues for new constructions built on the infrastructure that is the ruins of the pagan past, and especially Rome. Ruins are an irresistible attraction but also instigating desperate attempts to sweep aside an ‘overflow of memory’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]