A Walk Through the Archaeological Park of Recopolis

In the year 578 CE, the Visigothic monarch Leovigildo was at the top of his reign. To reflect his undisputed power in most of the Peninsula and southeast of France, he ordered a palatine city to be built along the Tagus River, in the current province of Guadalajara, in honor of his son Recaredo.

Recópolis was the only city of new plant that was built in the High Middle Ages in what is now Western Europe. The Visigothic state of King Leovigildo showed that he was the most powerful of the time, being the only one capable of undertaking a foundation of these characteristics.

The Visigoths were a branch of the Gothic peoples who in turn descended from the eastern Germanic peoples. They arose from the Gothic groups that invaded the Roman Empire in the fourth century of our era.

After invading the Italian peninsula and Gaul they began to settle in Hispania in 415, at the time of transition from the Old Age to the Middle Ages, founding the Visigothic kingdom. With the passage of time, the capital of the Visigothic kingdom would be established in Toledo. They lived in fact and in law with the Hispanic-Roman population.

The Visigothic kingdom remained in the Iberian Peninsula until it was invaded by Muslims from 711.

The conversion to the Catholicism of Recaredo took place in 587 and after him the Gothic nobility of the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo also embraced the Christian faith in tune with the majority of the conquered Hispanic-Roman population, abandoning Arianism, the ancient religion of the Gothic peoples. Moreover, the Visigothic culture and art were dominated by the Church.

Gothic was the Germanic language spoken by the Godo people and their two branches; Ostrogoths, in Italy, and Visigoths in Spain. Finally, the Visigoths adopted Latin as their own language.

Visigothic architecture was one of the most advanced of its time. Stone was used as the main building material, and horseshoe arches were used in its buildings.

The Visigoth plain people lived in villages and their houses were simple. Its main activities were agriculture, livestock and grazing. They were also very interested in goldsmithing (the art of working precious metals). His best known works in this field were the votive crowns, which the kings offered to the Church when they were crowned.

The urban landscape of Recópolis, is characterized by the location of its palatine complex in the highest area of ​​the hill, visible from any point, formed by two large buildings of rectangular plan, which join a large Church of palatine use, which It confers a special singularity.

This set is distributed around a large square from which it leaves through a large monumental gate, of a single span, the main route from which a regular route is planned in the rest of the city.

A large area of ​​land was dominated from Recópolis. The river Tagus valley offered all the agricultural and livestock resources that the Visigothic people needed.

The palatine palace

This set of palatine buildings is the largest known so far in Western Europe for this Visigothic period. Due to the uniqueness of its plant it is related to cruciform Aulic temples built in Byzantium by imperial initiative.

The palatine church

In the eastern part of the square was the palatine church, the most important temple in the city and one of its most careful buildings. With a Latin cross plan, its division into different spaces responded to the functional needs of the liturgy.

The remains that are preserved today merge with those of the Romanesque church built on the Visigoth and which was called the Hermitage of the Virgin of Recatel.

The monumental door, of which only its basement is preserved, was built with limestone ashlars and formed by two arches and a vault of segments. It separated the palatine areas from the rest of the city and from it that started the most important street of Recópolis.

Households

Articulated homes have been found in regular blocks, which ratify their planning prior to construction. All this urban complex was surrounded by a large walled enclosure as a symbol of the urban character and prestige of the new foundation.

Mint

Recópolis had a mint, or coin factory, that began to coin once the city was in operation, and issued currency, except for the minting of Witiza, during the first phase of the Visigothic Kingdom in the reigns of Leovigildo, Recaredo and Suintila. Together with Toledo, Recópolis, he owned the only mint of the southern sub-plateau.

The materials found in the archaeological site indicate that in them there were workshops of goldsmithing and glass production, and that consumer goods that arrived in Recópolis, from other areas of the Peninsula and from different areas of the Mediterranean were also commercialized.

At present, Recópolis has become one of the most relevant and visited Archaeological Parks of Castilla-La Mancha.