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The project tackles the subject of Air and Heavens and the role of this phenomenon in the making of sacred spaces, mostly in the medieval tradition with a special focus on the Byzantine world. Nonetheless, other Christian and non-Christian phenomena will also be considered within their wide historical and geographical context. The symposium is clearly of a multi-and-interdisciplinary character, thus appealing to scholars with various research interests and academic backgrounds. The symposium shall explore not merely the specific territories and related artefacts, but the particular spatial imagery conceived in human minds and then embodied in sacred landscapes (like the famous Sacri Monti) and various iconographic devices, as well as in some literary texts. It requires a new look at the methodology of modern art history. The project and symposium are the next step of a continuing research program dedicated to the making of sacred spaces as a distinct form of artistic and spiritual creativity, which has been called ‘hierotopy’. Within the framework of this research project a number of international symposia have been held, and various books dedicated to the subject have been published, such as Hierotopy. Creation of Sacred Spaces in Byzantium and Russia, ed. A.Lidov, Moscow, 2006; Hierotopy. Comparative Studies of Sacred Spaces ed. A.Lidov, Moscow, 2009; New Jerusalems. Hierotopy and Iconography of Sacred Spaces, ed. A.Lidov, Moscow 2009; Spatial Icons: Performativity in Byzantium and Medieval Russia, ed. A.Lidov, Moscow, 2011. Recently, a new sub-series has appeared, dedicated to the elements of the universe: Hierotopy of Light and Fire in Byzantium and Medieval Russia, ed. Alexei Lidov, Moscow 2013; The Life-Giving Source. The Holy Water in Hierotopy and Iconography of the Christian World, ed. Alexei Lidov, Moscow 2014; Holy Mountains in Hierotopy and Iconography of the Christian World, ed. Alexei Lidov, Moscow 2017 From our perspective, the introduction and spread of the term hierotopy amongst the scholars, and the increasing possibility of the hierotopic approach as an auxiliary aid to research, have not only provided an opportunity to look afresh at many “customary” phenomena, but also to substantially expand the field of historical studies. It is noteworthy that entire aspects of the creative process have been neglected by scholarship and were not studied or described at all, precisely due to the absence of the hierotopic approach which evades positivist classification. For instance, such a significant phenomenon as the spatial imagery of Air and Heavens has remained beyond the scope of traditional fields of study. At the same time, we know from written sources that the Heavens imagery appeared in liturgical services and in church decoration. It was a kind of ‘Spatial icon’ and ‘Image-paradigm’, if we use the new hierotopic terms invented to describe phenomena beyond the realm of flat pictures.