Mental Maps and Sacred Spaces: An Empirical Analysis of Late Medieval Towns of the Baltic Sea Region, 1420–1520

This article analyses how and to what extent medieval men and women utilized religious elements when they thought of the local physical space around themselves. Urban spaces usually contained plenty of physical elements connected to Christian faith, even if only bearing names related to it. This article seeks to clarify what kind of significance these nominally religious physical landmarks had for the mental landscapes of medieval town dwellers and the role of religious elements in their daily lives. We undertook such an endeavour by analysing how locations in urban space were described in written sources from the medieval towns of Åbo (Fin. Turku), Reval (Est. Tallinn), Stockholm, Stralsund and the two towns of Thorn (Pol. Toruń) in the period between 1420 and 1520. Our results indicate several local differences, but also highlight a common feature in terms of a practical emphasis on the visibility of landmarks.