Activities
Exhibitions
Please note that registration for many of the side events is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration opens on April 1, 10:00 am. For further details, please see here.
Tracing Byzantium: Fragments of the Greek Middle Ages
Special Exhibition at the Papyrus Museum of the Austrian National Library
Explore this year’s special exhibition at the Papyrus Museum in the Austrian National Library, dedicated to the “fragment” in the Greek Middle Ages. We present physical fragments of written artefacts, textual fragments in novel contexts, and documents of individual life as fragments of society. Expect glances into the Byzantine everyday world beyond shimmering mosaics.
The exhibition is free to all congress participants presenting their conference badge. Opening hours: 10 am to 6 pm (Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday), 10 am to 9 pm (Thursday), Monday closed.
During the congress week, the curators Krystina Kubina and Giulia Rossetto offer guided tours through the exhibition.
Registration is required.
Sunday, 23 August 2026, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
Tuesday, 25 August 2026, 12:30 – 1:30 pm
Thursday, 27 August 2026, 12:30 – 1:30 pm
Venue: Papyrus Museum (Austrian National Library)
The event is wheelchair-accessible.
Registration fee: 12 €
Maximum participants: 25 per event date
Registration closes on 31 July 2026, 23:59 CEST
The Stimulant Sea: Sugar, Coffee, & the Acquisition of Taste
A Dumbarton Oaks Poster Exhibition on the Global Histories of Sugar and Coffee in the Red Sea World
This exhibition explores the intertwined and commodified histories of sugar and coffee within a specific place and time: the Medieval and Early Modern Red Sea, envisaged as a cultural connector between the Mediterranean world and Africa, Arabia, and the Indian Ocean. The exhibition explores four interrelated themes: first, tracing the trade networks and knowledge transfers that shaped the origins of sugar and coffee as we know them today; second, examining their early medicinal uses; third, considering the social rituals through which sugar and coffee became part of everyday consumption; and fourth, revealing the labor systems that enabled their production and global distribution.
This poster exhibition was part of a display in the Dumbarton Oaks Museum accompanying the 2025 Symposium, Africa and Byzantium, and sought to connect history-based scholarship with the contemporary world. As a public history initiative, it was intended for a wide audience, including visitors with a limited knowledge of the eastern Mediterranean and Byzantine worlds.
The exhibition is free to all congress participants.
During the whole congress week
Venue: Arkadenhof, University of Vienna
The event is wheelchair-accessible.
Ephesos – A Metropolis of the Ancient World and Modern Archaeological Project
A Poster Exhibition by the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the OeAW on Research at Ephesos
For over 130 years, the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the OeAW has investigated Ephesos, a major UNESCO World Heritage Site in Türkiye. Excavations reveal 9,000 years of settlement history. An international team studies social, economic, and environmental aspects of ancient life. The poster session presents this project, focusing on Byzantine material culture, diet, vegetation, agriculture, and animal husbandry.
The exhibition is free to all congress participants.
During the whole congress week
Venue: Arkadenhof, University of Vienna
The event is wheelchair-accessible.
The Four Gospels in Syriac and Arabic: Biblical Philology and the Birth of Syriac Studies in Europe
Presentation of Manuscripts
Explore Ms. ÖNB Cod. Syr. 1, the 1554 gift securing patronage for the first Syriac printed Gospels (1555), launching Syriac studies in the West and now powering an HTR model. Alongside it, Cod. Or. 1544 showcases the philological methods used by medieval Coptic intellectuals to study the Gospels’ textual history.
Registration is required.
Tuesday, 25 August 2026, 4:15 – 6:00 pm
Entrance: Augustinerlesesaal, Josefsplatz 1, 1010 Wien
The event is not wheelchair-accessible.
Registration fee: 15 €
Maximum participants: 25
Registration closes on 31 July 2026, 23:59 CEST
Highlights of the Greek Manuscript Collection
Presentation of Manuscripts
Description will be added shortly.
Registration is required.
Wednesday, 26 August 2026, 4:15 – 6:00 pm
Entrance: Augustinerlesesaal, Josefsplatz 1, 1010 Wien
The event is not wheelchair-accessible.
Registration fee: 15 €
Maximum participants: 25
Registration closes on 31 July 2026, 23:59 CEST
The Vienna Greek Palimpsests
Presentation of Manuscripts
The Austrian National Library possesses a significant number of Greek palimpsests. Since 2003, systematic research has been undertaken, leading to “discoveries” of Ancient Greek and Byzantine texts. Selected palimpsests of great importance will be presented, including unique witnesses. State-of-the-art digital technology allows us to see scripts that have been lost for centuries.
Registration is required.
Thursday, 27 August 2026, 4:15 – 6:00 pm
Entrance: Augustinerlesesaal, Josefsplatz 1, 1010 Wien
The event is not wheelchair-accessible.
Registration fee: 15 €
Maximum participants: 25
Registration closes on 31 July 2026, 23:59 CEST
Coins of Crisis: Power and Money in Late Byzantium and Beyond
Exhibition at the Postsparkasse, Austrian Academy of Sciences
The political fragmentation and cultural diversity of the Eastern Mediterranean after the Fourth Crusade in 1204 was also reflected in a plurality of currencies. In this exhibition, coins from Late Byzantium and neighbouring polities are not only presented as means of payment, but equally as media of power and artefacts of socioeconomic entanglements – reflecting the innovative research of the young collector of these specimens, Samuel Ernest Logan Cowell.
The exhibition is free to all congress participants.
Tuesday, 25 to Thursday, 27 August 2026, 11:00 am – 4 pm
Venue: Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Medieval Research, Department of Byzantine Research. Georg Coch-Platz 1, 1010 Vienna, 3rd floor.
The event is wheelchair-accessible.
Post-Byzantine Icons from the Metropolis of Austria
Exhibition at the Church of the Holy Trinity
This exhibition shows icons from the holdings of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Austria. The icons were acquired in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Some of them were donated to the Metropolis by important patrons of the time and bear beautiful witness to Greek culture in the imperial city of Vienna at that time.
The exhibition is freely available to both conference participants and the general public.
Monday, 24 to Thursday, 27 August 2026, 11:00 am – 4 pm
Venue: Church of the Holy Trinity, Fleischmarkt 13, 1010 Vienna.
The event is not wheelchair-accessible.
Under the Banner of the Seals: History and Culture in the Eastern Mediterranean (from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages)
A Showcase at the Papyrus Museum of the Austrian National Library
This special showcase provides an insight into the society and culture of the eastern Mediterranean region through clay seals from Egypt (from the holdings of the Papyrus Collection/Austrian National Library) and Byzantine lead seals (private collection of A.-K. Wassiliou-Seibt).
The exhibition is free to all congress participants presenting their conference badge.
25, 26, 28, 29 August 2026, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm;
27 August 2026, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Venue: Papyrus Museum (Austrian National Library)
The event is wheelchair-accessible.
Cancellation conditions
A refund of the registration fee is not possible at any time after registration has been completed.