The 2020 edition of the Pontifical Academies Award has suffered an unavoidable postponement due to the Covid emergency.
On the proposal of the Coordinating Council of the Pontifical Academies, the 2020 Award, reserved for the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology and to the Pontifical Academy Cultorum Martyrumand consisting of the Gold Medal of the Pontificate, has been awarded to Prof. Győző Vörös, Member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, for his project The Machaerus Archaeological Excavations, illustrated in three volumes published by Edizioni Terra Santa (2013, 2015, 2019).
Also at the proposal of the Coordinating Council between Pontifical Academies, the Silver Medal of the Pontificate was awarded to Dr. Domenico Benoci, for the unpublished doctoral thesis "Le Iscrizioni Cristiane dell'Area I di Callisto", discussed at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, and to Dr. Gabriele Castiglia, for the edited monograph "Topografia Cristiana della Toscana centro-settentrionale (Città e campagne dal IV al X secolo)", Pontificio Pontificio di Callisto. Gabriele Castiglia, for the edited monograph "Topografia Cristiana della Toscana centro-settentrionale (Città e campagne dal IV al X secolo)", Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, Vatican City 2020.
The session of the Pontifical Academies, at which the Secretary of State, on behalf of the Holy Father, will present the laureates with their respective awards, will be held early next year, coinciding with the commemoration of the Bicentenary of the birth of the archaeologist Giovanni Battista De Rossi, founder of modern Christian archaeology and Magister of the Collegium Cultorum Martyrum.
