- Reccopolis
Reccopolis ( _es. Recópolis) near the tiny modern village of
Zorita de los Canes in the province of Guadalajara,Castile-La Mancha ,Spain , is one of at least four cities founded inHispania by theVisigoths , [According to E. A Thompson, "The Barbarian Kingdoms in Gaul and Spain", "Nottingham Mediaeval Studies", 7 (1963:4n11), the others were (i) "Victoriacum", founded by Leovigild and may survive as the city of Vitoria, but a twelfth-century foundation for this city is given in contemporary sources, (ii) "Lugo id est Luceo" in theAsturias , referred to byIsidore of Seville , and (iii) "Ologicus" (perhaps "Ologitis"), founded using Basque labour in 621 bySuinthila as a fortification against the Basques, is modernOlite . All of these cities were founded for military purposes and at least Reccopolis, Victoriacum, and Ologicus in celebration of victory. A possible fifth Visigothic foundation is "Baiyara" (perhaps modernMontoro ), mentioned as founded by Reccared in the fifteenth-century geographical account, "Kitab al-Rawd al-Mitar ", cf. José María Lacarra, "Panorama de la historia urbana en la Península Ibérica desde el siglo V al X," "La città nell'alto medioevo", 6 (1958:319–358). Reprinted in "Estudios de alta edad media española" (Valencia: 1975), pp25–90.] the only new cities in Western Europe known to be founded between the fifth and eighth centuries. [ [http://www.turismo-prerromanico.es/arterural/recopol/recopolFicha.htm Arte Visigótico: Recópolis] ] It was founded in 578 [The date is given inJohn of Biclaro 's chronicle, under the Visigothic date 213: "Luivigildus rex extinctis undique tyrannis, et pervasoribus Hispaniae superatis sortitus requiem propiam cum plebe resedit civitatem in Celtiberia ex nomine filii condidit, quae Recopolis nuncupatur: quam miro opere et in moenibus et suburbanis adornans privilegia populo novae Urbis instituit."] by the Visigothic kingLeovigild and named to honour his sonReccared I and to serve as the seat of Reccared as co-king, in the Visigothic province ofCeltiberia , lying to the west ofCarpetania , where the main Visigothic capital, Toledo, lay. In the eighth century the Visigoths at Reccopolis welcomed Muslim overlordship, in return for Muslim protection. TheMoors 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" [C. Bradford Welles, "Archaeological News" "American Journal of Archaeology" 52.2 (April 1948:199-270) p. 266.] in the Cerro de la Olíva lay forgotten until the twentieth century, [The first professional exploration of the site was undertaken under the supervision of J. Cabré in 1944-45. ( [http://www.jccm.es/revista/166/articulos166/patrimonio_junio.htm Fernando Miranda, in "Patrimonio"] )] but as a post-Roman royal foundation, its only European rival in the sixth century wasRavenna . Its urbanistic core, which has Byzantine parallels is centered on a palace with administrative as well as royal functions, connected with apalatine chapel . Archeological excavations at Reccopolis have revealed traces of city walls built with towers every thirty metres, anaqueduct , commercial and residential quarters covering 30 hectares, markets and a mint. 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 ) with the bases of columns that supported the upper one, which, to judge from remnants of its flooring, was the "piano nobile ". Roofs were tiled, as they had been in Roman times. The palace chapel, which was overlaid by the Romanesque hermitage of Nuestra Señora de Recatel constructed on the ruined site, is perhaps the last of the VisigothicArian churches. [ [http://www.turismo-prerromanico.es/arterural/recopol/recopolFicha.htm Arte Visigótico: Recópolis] ] It was ofbasilica construction with a centralnave separated by solid walls from the flanking naves, which exited into thetransept , but did not communicate directly with the nave; its hemisphericalapse was rectangular in its outer appearance. A deepnarthex 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 theMerovingian series,Suevi c coins from Galicia and some ofJustinian II , as well as coins from Visigothic Hispania itself. [Welles 1948:266.] There was also an active mint at Reccopolis, coins from which have been found dating to the reign ofWittiza in the early eighth century. [E. A. Thompson, "The Goths in Spain" (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969:64).]The city's site, only part of which has been excavated, is to be protected as the projected Parque Arqueológico Recópolis. [ [http://www.castillalamancha.es/clmcultura/parquesArqueologicos/ParquesArqueologicos.asp Unicef:Parque Arqueológico Recópolis] ] In 2007 an exhibition, "Recópolis: un paseo por la ciudad Visigoda" was mounted by the Museo Arqueológico Regional, Alcala de Henares; an accompanying catalogue was published.
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External links
* [http://www.tarraconensis.com/recopolis/recopolis.html Recópolis]
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