The Interpretations Center of the Archaeological Park of Recopolis

Orange Room

It contains the information necessary to understand the history and the historical context in which the archaeological site is developed.

In the first room an introduction to archeology and the advances made in the archaeological park welcome the visitor. In an adjoining room a magnificent video will introduce you to everything related to the park you are going to visit.

Red Room

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 rectangular-plan buildings, which join a large Church of Palatine use, which gives it 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.

Houses have been found, articulated in regular blocks, which ratify their planning prior to the time of 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.

Towards the middle of the 7th century, a series of important transformations that affect the city and modify the organized urban planning of the previous phase took place in Recópolis.

The commercial buildings of the main street, become mostly housing, retaining only some areas a minimal craft activity. Public areas, originally open, are occupied with new buildings of inferior quality.

Recópolis was surrounded by a wall, marked by towers, in which the entrance doors to the urban area were opened coinciding with the natural accesses. Also, it had two water supply systems, defined by the existence of an aqueduct and the presence of cisterns.

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.

Green Room Moss

With the arrival of the Arabs the year 711 CE began throughout a century a process of social change that led to a new model of society, the Andalusian. At this time, the city of Recópolis, Madinat Raqqubal, survived, throughout the 8th century, with the same structure as in the last Visigothic period.

It will be in the passage between the eighth and ninth centuries, when Recópolis loses the category of power and administrative center as a result of the conflicts and struggles, in the region, among Berbers, local population against the supporters of the Cordoba emirs who tried to consolidate a New state power.

For the first phase of the Andalusian era - the beginning of the 8th century - the archaeological excavation provides us with an example of housing from this moment, based on the reforms made in the old commercial building.

Some of these will take advantage of the ruins of the old palatine constructions, and others will be built of new plant. All of them will be with the exploitation of the nearby territory.

Blue Room

Zorita and its territory pass to Christian hands in 1085, when the surrender of the taifa of Toledo to the kingdom of Castile is agreed.

To replace the local Muslim population, which is forced to emigrate, peasants from the Christian kingdoms found new villages. One of them is founded in the olive grove of Raccopal, the old Recópolis, in 1156, by virtue of a concession of King Alfonso VIII of Castile to Mozarabic peasants from Aragon.

On the ruins of the Visigothic church a Romanesque temple was built with its cemetery, and on the part of the visible remains of the old Visigoth palace closest to the church several houses were built to house the new peasant group.

Green Room Prado

Throughout a century, changes occur as a result of the implementation of a new social model, feudalism.

The remains of the Arab medina, built with the Visigoth stones of Recópolis, merge with the interventions of the Christian and feudal eras. Part of the history of Spain in the same building.