Imagining the Past? Architecture and Public Rituals in Early Modern Lisbon, Madrid and Valladolid

This article discusses the application of architectural drawing and 3D modelling as suitable digital heritage methods for the study of ephemeral and residential architecture in sixteenth-century Iberia. Public rituals transformed spaces of social encounter in early modern cities. Learning how these urban spaces were decorated for such rituals is often challenging, for our knowledge of ephemeral displays and the residential architecture that composed the streetscapes of cities can be slim. Visual sources of ephemera, surviving early modern buildings and depictions of streetscapes can at times be scant. However, urban theories on early modern urbanism, theatre and space have demonstrated that ephemeral and permanent residential architecture are crucial for our understanding of festival culture. This paper examines the digital re-creation of the ephemera of the Lisbon ceremonial entry of 1581 through the lens of notions of authenticity in conservation theory and practice. It also explores early modern reforms in residential architecture in Madrid and Valladolid as a vehicule to examine the relationship between ritual and urbanism. This latter case study crucially shows digital re-creations aided the identification of primary visual sources. In doing so, this essay problematizes the use of digital heritage visualisation as a tool for the analysis of urban historic environments.