MobiLab at the ICHT Meeting 2026 – Kaunas
MobiLab at the ICHT Meeting 2026 – Kaunas
A MobiLab representative attended the annual meeting of the International Commission for the History of Towns (ICHT), which was held at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania, from 10 to 12 September 2026.
The conference brought together an international community of scholars to discuss contemporary methods of studying urban history, with a particular focus on cities as complex spaces of memory, identity, and transformation. This year’s theme, ‘Forgetting and Remembering the Past in Urban History’, marked the launch of a new four-year ICHT programme titled ‘Dichotomies of Urban History’. It explored how cities preserve, interpret, or erase their past, and how urban landscapes shape collective memory.
MobiLab contributed to the scientific programme with a poster presentation by Marco Orlandi titled ‘Forgetting and Remembering Arian Ravenna: A GIS-based analysis of Gothic symbols and urban memory from Justinian’s Reconquest to UNESCO heritage’. This research provides a spatial, GIS-driven investigation into the erasure, preservation, and reinterpretation of Gothic symbols and Arian memory in Ravenna across the centuries, from the Byzantine reconquest to modern UNESCO heritage recognition.
The conference also hosted a session sharing the latest updates from the Atlas Working Group (AWG), which coordinates the European Historic Towns Atlas project. This session discussed new perspectives on spatial history, historical cartography and digital research methodologies in the era of artificial intelligence.
Participation in the annual ICHT meeting was a valuable opportunity for MobiLab and MoHu to present our research, engage with cutting-edge developments in digital and spatial history, and strengthen connections within this major European network of urban historians.
