Od „katedry gotyckiej za stacyę kolei żelaznej” do „niewypowiadalnej nieobecności”

Abstract

The author raises a question of the actuality of the notion of specter in the context of architecture. Contrary to architecture, specters are phenomena both passing and unclear. An analysis of chosen cases of architectural structures leads to discerning two major sources of the origin of specters in architecture: a) specters evoked by summoning collective and individual memory (ruin, copy, reconstruction, anachronism); b) specters based on multi-sensorial impact of architecture designed in order to evoke specific emotions, especially fear and threat that are not exclusively based on memory (cave, laboratory of architectural psychology). The presented typological outline of structures, which may evoke specters in the context of architecture, comprises ruins, copies and reconstructions, anachronisms (also anachronous inventions), crypts, authentic spaces, and monuments.