Reccopolis (; ), is an archaeological site located near Zorita de los Canes, a small village in the province of Guadalajara, Spain. It represents one of the

Visigoth The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...

cities founded in

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, compri ...

during the post- Roman period. Established by Visigothic king

Liuvigild Liuvigild, Leuvigild, Leovigild, or ''Leovigildo'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese), ( 519 – 586) was a Visigoths, Visigothic Visigothic Kingdom, king of Hispania and Septimania from 569 to 586. Known for his Codex ...

, who ruled Iberia in 568–86 AD, Reccopolis is one of only two cities in

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

known to have been founded between the fifth and eighth centuries. Its remains serve as a

case study A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular f ...

for understanding the ideas and ideals of a city in

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

, reflecting influences from classical Roman models. Discovered in the 1890s, the site underwent archaeological excavations starting in the 1940s under Juan Cabré, with ongoing efforts revealing the monumental area within the walled enclosure. Notable remains include an aqueduct located 2 km to the east, recognized as the first new, urban aqueduct in the Iberian Peninsula in two centuries and the last built in the Roman way.

Historical information

Reccopolis was founded in the year 578. The date is given in chronicle of John of Biclaro:

With tyrants destroyed on all sides and the invaders of Spain overcome, King Leovigild had peace to reside with his own people. He founded a city in Celtiberia, which he named Recopolis after his son. He endowed it with splendid buildings, both within the walls and in the suburbs, and he established privileges for the people of the new city.

A cache of coins was discovered in the city's palace, fixing the date of construction between 580–83. Coin variety indicated cultural reach, with gold coins of the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

series,

Suevi file:1st century Germani.png, 300px, The approximate positions of some Germanic peoples reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 1st century. Suebian peoples in red, and other Irminones in purple. The Suebi (also spelled Suavi, Suevi or Suebians ...

c coins from Galicia and of Justinian II, as well as from Visigothic Hispania itself. Reccopolis had an active mint, coins from which have been found dating to the reign of Wittiza, in the early eighth century. The city was named by the Visigothic king

to honor his son Reccared I and to serve as Reccared's seat as co-king in the Visigothic province of Celtiberia, to the west of Carpetania, where the main capital, Toledo, lay. As a post-Roman royal foundation the city's only European rival in the sixth century was

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

. In the eighth century the Visigoths at Reccopolis welcomed Muslim over-lordship in return for Muslim protection. The

Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

conserved the city as ''Madinät Raqquba'' and though they reused building materials to construct a fortification on a hill facing the city, the city declined and was burned, looted, razed, and incrementally abandoned in the tenth century. It lay forgotten until the twentieth century. Today Reccopolis is a large field of ruins in the ''Cerro de la Olíva''. There are plans to protect the partially excavated site as ''Parque Arqueológico Recópolis''. In 2007, the Museo Arqueológico Regional in ''

Alcalá de Henares Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish municipality of the Community of Madrid. Housing is primarily located on the right (north) bank of the Henares River, Henares. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated Municip ...

'' mounted an exhibition called "Recópolis: un paseo por la ciudad Visigoda" and published an accompanying catalogue.

Design

Archaeological excavations at Reccopolis have revealed traces of city walls with towers every thirty metres, an aqueduct,Martínez Jiménez, J. 2015. A preliminary study of the aqueduct of Reccopolis. ''Oxford Journal of Archaeology'', 34(3), pp. 301–20. commercial and residential quarters covering 30 hectares, several markets, and a mint. Its urban core was centered on a palace with administrative as well as royal functions, connected with a palatine chapel, an arrangement that has Byzantine parallels. On the western wall, a single entrance gate provided access. Within this a second gate formed an entrance to an "upper city" of the palace compound and its attached chapel. The "lower city" outside contained lodgings for the ordinary citizens, commercial districts and a barracks. The palace was two stories tall. The lower story was a single space, perhaps a

granary A granary, also known as a grain house and historically as a granarium in Latin, is a post-harvest storage building primarily for grains or seeds. Granaries are typically built above the ground to prevent spoilage and protect the stored grains o ...

, with column bases supporting the story above. Flooring remnants indicate the second story may have been the '' piano nobile''. The roofs were tiled, as they had been in Roman times. The palace chapel is possibly the last of the Visigothic Arian churches, but it was overlaid by the Romanesque hermitage of Nuestra Señora de Recatel, which was constructed on the ruined site. It was of

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

construction, with a central

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

separated by solid walls from the flanking naves. These exited into the

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

, but did not communicate directly with the nave. Its hemispherical

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

was rectangular in outer appearance. A deep narthex was entered by a single central door.

References

External links

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Recópolis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Recopolis Visigothic archaeological sites in Spain Gothic cities and towns Populated places established in the 6th century Former populated places in Spain 578 establishments 6th century in the Visigothic Kingdom 7th century in the Visigothic Kingdom 8th century in the Visigothic Kingdom 8th century in al-Andalus 9th-century disestablishments in Europe Archaeological sites in Castilla–La Mancha Buildings and structures in the Province of Guadalajara