Abstract This essay concludes the European project Conques in the Global World , devoted to the longue durée of one of medieval Europe’s most emblematic sites. It contends that no study of the Middle Ages, or of any historical period, can be complete without historiography as its foundation. The case of Conques demonstrates that the “medieval” is not a stable historical entity but a construct continually reshaped by the intellectual, political, and ideological forces that have reinterpreted it from the nineteenth century to today. From Mérimée’s and Formigé’s restorations to Soulages’ modern interventions, Conques’ material and symbolic identity emerges as a palimpsest of national, religious, and European aspirations. Beginning from the present and tracing backward through layers of reception, the essay positions historiography as both a critical and ethical tool: one that exposes how modern narratives fabricate the Middle Ages and, more broadly, how societies construct and mobilize their pasts. In this view, a reflexive and epistemologically conscious art history becomes indispensable to the preservation and understanding of cultural heritage in the contemporary world.
Foletti et al. (Tue,) studied this question.