Ricerc@Sapienza

GRUPPO DI RICERCA INTERNAZIONALE Programma di Ricerca Interuniversitario “De Ora a Labora”
RESPONSABILE SCIENTIFICO E COORDINAMENTO UNITA di
ROMA EXECUTIVE PROTOCOLS
UNIVERSITY OF EVORA prof. Ana Cardoso De Matos
UNVIERSITY OF SEVILLA profesor Enrique Larive López

The “De Ora a Labora” Project is being carried out by the universities of Évora, Seville and Rome Sapienza. 
It aims to investigate the processes of functional change that took place in religious buildings converted into production spaces from the 18th to the 20th century, as well as to analyze their current condition and uses. It also seeks to establish the state of the art regarding production processes prior to the confiscation of church property, highlighting the survival of certain productive activities in convents in Portugal and Spain. The monastery (where mills, workshops, cellars, and training spaces were common) played a pivotal role in the transmission of practical knowledge related to
theoretical knowledge, trades, and crafts from the early Middle Ages throughout the West, contributing to the 12th-century urban renaissance and the European economic revival through innovative models of economic land management and the utilization and transformation of natural resources via structures characterized by functional hybridization (Ora et Labora)

As a result of the secularization of institutions, we can observe how, through various processes that took place between the 18th and 20th centuries, numerous religious buildings underwent significant changes in use; of particular relevance to our study are the transformations of convents and monasteries into factories, warehouses, workshops, and the like. This paper will provide an overview of the role of women in these religious structures, focusing on their involvement in productive activities and the potential lines of research that this perspective entails.