Final answer:
The 'millennial fever' around the year 1000 was marked by widespread anxiety over the anticipated end of the world, leading to a building boom of religious structures and a transformation in European art that reflected the period's apocalyptic concerns and religious devotion.
Step-by-step explanation:
The 'Millennial Fever' around the year 1000
The phrase “millennial fever” refers to the anxiety and anticipation that permeated European society around the year 1000, due to beliefs that the end of the world, as foretold by Christian eschatology, might occur at the turn of the first millennium. Building activity, especially of religious structures like churches and monasteries, surged significantly as the year 950 approached. This increase in construction was motivated by a mix of reasons including, but not limited to, the apocalyptic fears associated with the impending millennium.
The impact on people's lives was profound: there was not only a rise in religious devotion and pilgrimages, but also an economic shift as resources were poured into ecclesiastical building projects. This period also saw an artistic transformation; artworks began to incorporate themes reflecting the apocalyptic anxiety and religious fervor of the time. As the immediate fear of an apocalypse dwindled, the construction boom of monumental religious structures continued and played a critical role in shaping the medieval European artistic legacy.