  I will discuss the emergence of lorentzian symmetric spaces as supersymmetric
supergravity backgrounds. I will focus on supergravity theories in dimension
11, 10, and 6, and will concentrate on the determination of the so-called
maximally supersymmetric backgrounds, for which a classification exists up to
local isometry. A special class of lorentzian symmetric spaces also plays a
role in the determination of parallelisable supergravity backgrounds in type II
supergravity, which I will also summarise. (To appear in the proceedings of the
programme "Geometry of pseudo-riemannian manifolds with application to
physics", hosted by the Erwin Schroedinger International Institute for
Mathematical Physics.)
