Reccopolis
Encyclopedia
Zorita de los Canes
Zorita de los Canes is a municipality located in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 98 inhabitants....
in the province of Guadalajara
Guadalajara (province)
Guadalajara is a province of central/north-central Spain, in the northern part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Cuenca, Madrid, Segovia, Soria, Zaragoza, and Teruel...
, Castile-La Mancha
Castile-La Mancha
Castile-La Mancha is an autonomous community of Spain. Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, is one of at least four cities founded in Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
by the Visigoths, the only new cities in Western Europe known to be founded between the fifth and eighth centuries. It was founded in 578 by the Visigothic king Leovigild and named to honour his son Reccared I and to serve as the seat of Reccared as co-king, in the Visigothic province of Celtiberia, lying to the west of Carpetania
Carpetania
Carpetania was an ancient region of what is today Spain, located between the Guadarrama, the mountains of Toledo, the river Guadiana and the mountain range of Alcaraz, including approximately, the present independent communities of Madrid and Castile. It was inhabited by the Carpetanos, a pre-Roman...
, where the main Visigothic capital, Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
, lay. In the eighth century the Visigoths at Reccopolis welcomed Muslim overlordship, in return for Muslim protection. The Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
conserved the city, as Madinät Raqquba, though they reused building materials to construct a fortification on a hill facing the city; the city declined and the site was burned, looted, razed and incrementally abandoned in the tenth century. Its "vast field of ruins" in the Cerro de la Olíva lay forgotten until the twentieth century, but as a post-Roman royal foundation, its only European rival in the sixth century was Ravenna
Ravenna
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and the second largest comune in Italy by land area, although, at , it is little more than half the size of the largest comune, Rome...
. Its urbanistic core is centered on a palace with administrative as well as royal functions, connected with a palatine chapel
Palatine Chapel
Palatine Chapel may refer to:*Palatine Chapel in Aachen of the Aachen Cathedral - the central monument of Carolingian art*Cappella Palatina of the Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo - the central monument of Arab-Norman-Byzantine art...
, an arrangement that has Byzantine parallels
Augustaion
The Augustaion or, in Latin, Augustaeum, was an important ceremonial square in ancient and medieval Constantinople , roughly corresponding to the modern Aya Sofya Meydanı...
.
Aqueduct
An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
, commercial and residential quarters covering 30 hectares, markets and a mint
Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
. On the western wall, a single entrance gate provided access. Within, a second gate formed an entrance to an "upper city" of the palace compound and its attached chapel, while the "lower city" contained lodgings for the ordinary citizens, commercial districts and barracks.
The palace was of two storeys, the lower one a single space (perhaps a granary
Granary
A granary is a storehouse for threshed grain or animal feed. In ancient or primitive granaries, pottery is the most common use of storage in these buildings. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animals.-Early origins:From ancient times grain...
) with the bases of columns that supported the upper one, which, to judge from remnants of its flooring, was the piano nobile
Piano nobile
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...
. Roofs were tiled, as they had been in Roman times. The palace chapel, which was overlaid by the Romanesque hermitage
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
of Nuestra Señora de Recatel constructed on the ruined site, is perhaps the last of the Visigothic Arian
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
churches. It was of basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
construction with a central nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
separated by solid walls from the flanking naves, which exited into the transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
, but did not communicate directly with the nave; its hemispherical apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
was rectangular in its outer appearance. A deep narthex
Narthex
The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper...
was entered by a single central door. In the basilica a cache of coins was discovered, which fixed the date of construction as before 580–83 and indicated the reach of cultural connections, with gold coins of the Merovingian series, Suevic coins from Galicia
Kingdom of Galicia
The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...
and some of Justinian II
Justinian II
Justinian II , surnamed the Rhinotmetos or Rhinotmetus , was the last Byzantine Emperor of the Heraclian Dynasty, reigning from 685 to 695 and again from 705 to 711...
, as well as coins from Visigothic Hispania itself. There was also an active mint at Reccopolis, coins from which have been found dating to the reign of Wittiza
Wittiza
Wittiza was the Visigothic King of Hispania from 694 until his death, co-ruling with his father, Ergica, until 702 or 703.-Joint rule:...
in the early eighth century.
The city's site, only part of which has been excavated, is to be protected as the projected Parque Arqueológico Recópolis. In 2007 an exhibition, "Recópolis: un paseo por la ciudad Visigoda" was mounted by the Museo Arqueológico Regional, Alcalá de Henares
Alcalá de Henares
Alcalá de Henares , meaning Citadel on the river Henares, is a Spanish city, whose historical centre is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites, and one of the first bishoprics founded in Spain...
; an accompanying catalogue was published.