A royal brick house near the edge of town: Religious and social topography in the medieval town of Roskilde, Denmark

In 2019 the remains of a late medieval brick-build house and cellar was excavated in the town of Roskilde, Denmark. The find was surprising since the site is located near the town fortification and at a distance from the town center and the main streets were the medieval brick houses of the upper social classes are usually considered concentrated. A likely explanation was found in a written source, which indicated that the brick-house had belonged to Queen Margret I, ruler of Denmark 1376-1412. The excavated building was located close to the site of a nunnery, which were probably the motivation for the queen to locate her residence at this specific site. The presentation will give an overview of the ecclesiastical topography of Roskilde, and thus point at the possible influence of religious institutions on elite residential patterns, in opposition to the mercantile, economic and infrastructural factors normally focused on in our understanding of the development of medieval urban social topography.