The Orientation of Gothic-Mudéjar Churches in Southern Spain
The Rotation of the Qibla and Sunrise on the Canonical Equinox
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.19629Keywords:
Gothic-Mudéjar churches, church orientation, qibla rotation, Canonical Equinox, southern SpainAbstract
Most of the earliest new churches built in Andalusia (southern Spain) following the thirteenth-century Christian Reconquista occupied the sites of former mosques. In some cases, these churches incorporated pre-existing architectonic elements – particularly minarets, which were converted into bell towers – or took some inspiration from Islamic architecture, creating a
combination of Gothic style and elements from Muslim architecture known as Gothic-Mudéjar. This paper analyses the orientation pattern of a group of 68 Gothic-Mudéjar churches built in the cities of re-conquered Andalusia up to the early fifteenth century, and the normalised frequency distribution of azimuths is compared with published data for the qibla (the direction toward which Muslims turn to pray) observed at a group of 82 Andalusian mosques. Results confirm that a large number of churches were oriented via a 90° anticlockwise rotation from orientation to the qibla after placing the apse in the former eastern wall of the mosque. It is further argued, based on the histogram and a distinctive peak around 84°, that the architects aligned these churches to sunrise over the local horizon for 25th March according to the Julian calendar, the date of the canonical equinox. This practice reflects Church teaching and a medieval foundation-stone rite involving a dawn vigil, and the built structures reflect the limited technical capacity of the church builders. The method of orientation would also have created a precedent for the alignment of some later churches in southern Spain dedicated to the Virgin of the Assumption to sunrise on 15th August, the Feast of the Assumption.
Downloads
References
Abril, J. M., 2017. “Evidence of Churches Aligned to the Sun on the Patron Saint’s Day in Southern Spain after the Twelfth Century”. Journal of Skyscape Archaeology 3 (1): 29–48. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.31508
Abril, J. M. and J. A. Morena-López, 2018. “Archaeoastronomical Study on the Iberian-Roman Sanctuary of Torreparedones (Baena, Spain)”. Journal of Skyscape Archaeology 4 (1): 26–51. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.34211
Ali, J. R. and P. Cunich, 2001. “The Orientation of Churches: Some New Evidence”. Antiquaries Journal 81: 155–193. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003581500072188
Allen, A. S., 2016. “Church Orientation in the Landscape: A Perspective from Medieval Wales”. Archaeological Journal 173 (1): 154–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/00665983.2016.1110781
Ataoguz, K., 2015. “Role of Light–Shadow Hierophanies in Early Medieval Art”. In Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, edited by C. L. N. Ruggles, 1733–1743. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_177
Benedictine Monks of Buckfast Abbey, 2019 [1927]. “The Laying of the Foundation-Stone of a Church”. Catholic Culture.org [online]. Accessed September 2017. https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3661 [First published in Homiletic & Pastoral Review, January 1927, 405–412].
Bennett, G. G., 1982. “The Calculation of Astronomical Refraction in Marine Navigation”. Journal of Navigation 35 (2): 255–259. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0373463300022037
Blaauw, S. L. de, 2012. “In View of the Light: A Hidden Principle in the Orientation of Early Christian Church Building”. Translated by C. Cawthra. In Medieval Art and Architecture, edited by P. Piva, 15–45. Milan: Jaca Book.
Brady, B., D. Gunzburg and F. Silva, 2017. “The Orientation of Cistercian Churches in Wales: A Cultural Astronomy Case Study”. Citeaux: Commentarii Cistercienses 67 (3–4): 275–302.
?aval, S., 2015. “Church Orientations in Slovenia”. In Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, edited by C. L. N. Ruggles, 1719–1726. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_175
Gallart, P. A, 2013. “El ritual de la dedicación de la iglesia en los pontificales medievales y su ciclo iconográfico”. IMAGO 5: 79–89. https://doi.org/10.7203/imago.5.2620
Gangui, A., A. C. González García, M. A. Perera-Betancort and J. A. Belmonte, 2014. “La orientación como una seña de identidad cultural: las iglesias históricas de Lanzarote”. Tabona: Revista de prehistoria y de arqueología 20: 105–128.
García-Ortega, A. J., 2007. Traza de la planta en el modelo Parroquial Cordobés Bajomedieval. PhD diss., University of Seville, Spain.
García-Ortega, A. J., 2015. “De mezquitas a iglesias. Formalización y trazado en los procesos de reconversión de Toledo y Córdoba”. EGA: revista de expresión gráfica arquitectónica 26: 202–211. https://doi.org/10.4995/ega.2015.4053
González-García, A. C., 2015. “A Voyage of Christian Medieval Astronomy: Symbolic, Ritual and Political Orientation of Churches”. In SEAC 2011 Stars and Stones: Voyages in Archaeoastronomy and Cultural Astronomy, edited by F. Pimenta, 268–275. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 2720. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407313733
González-García, A. C. and J. A. Belmonte, 2006. “Which Equinox?” Archaeoastronomy: Journal for Astronomy in Culture 20: 95–105.
González-García, A. C. and J. A. Belmonte, 2015a. “Interactions Between Islamic and Christian Traditions in the Iberian Peninsula”. In Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, edited by C. L. N. Ruggles, 1695–1702. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_172
González-García, A. C. and J. A. Belmonte, 2015b. “The Orientation of Pre-Romanesque Churches in the Iberian Peninsula”. Nexus Network Journal 17: 353–377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00004-014-0231-7
González-García, A. C., J. A. Belmonte and L. Costa-Ferrer, 2016. “The Orientation of Pre-Romanesque Churches in Spain: Asturias, A Case of Power Re-Affirmation”. In Astronomy and Power: How Worlds are Structured. Proceedings of the SEAC 2010 Conference, edited by M. A. Rappenglück, B. Rappenglück, N. Campion and F. Silva, 255–259. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 2794. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407314419
Google Earth Pro 7.1.8.3036 [online]. Accessed January 2020 https://www.google.es/earth/
Hinton, I. D., 2010. Aspects of the Alignment and Location of Medieval Rural Churches. PhD diss., University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
IAPH [Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico, Consejería de Cultura y Patrimonio Histórico], 2020. Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción [online]. Accessed January 2020. https://guiadigital.iaph.es/bien/inmueble/938/cordoba/castro-del-rio/iglesia-de-nuestra-senora-de-la-asuncion
IGN [Instituto Geográfico Nacional], 2016. Iberpix Viewer [online]. Accessed March 2016. http://www.ign.es/iberpix2/visor
Jiménez, A., 1991. “La Quibla Extraviada”. Cuadernos de Medinat Al-Zahra 3: 189–209.
Kanisch, G., 2017. “Detection Limit Calculations for Peak Evaluation Methods in HPGe Gamma Ray Spectrometry According to ISO 11929”. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A 855: 118–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2017.02.092
King, D. A., 1978. “Some Medieval Values of the Qibla at Cordova”. Journal for the History of Arabic Science 2 (2): 370–387.
King, D. A., 1985 “Astronomy for Landlubbers and Navigators: The Case of the Islamic Middle Ages”. Revista da Universidade de Coimbra 32: 211–223.
King, D. A., 1994. “Science in the Service of Religion: The Case of Islam”. Impact of Science on Society 159: 245–262.
King, D. A.,1995. “The Orientation of Medieval Islamic Religious Architecture and Cities”. Journal for the History of Astronomy 26 (3): 253–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/002182869502600305
King, D. A., 2018–2019. “The Enigmatic Orientation of the Great Mosque of Cordoba”. Suhayl 16–17: 33–111.
Kosowsky, M., 2012. HeyWhatsThat [online]. Accessed November 2019. http://www.heywhatsthat.com/
Ladero-Quesada, M. A., 1987. “Las ciudades de Andalucía occidental en la Baja Edad Media: sociedad, morfología y funciones urbanas”. In La Ciudad Hispánica siglos XIII al XVI: actas del coloquio celebrado en La Rábida y Sevilla del 14 al 19 de septiembre de 1981, vol. 3: 69–107. Madrid: Universidad Complutense.
Magli, G., 2015. Archaeoastronomy: Introduction to the Science of Stars and Stones. New York: Springer.
Mathworks, 2016. MATLAB v. R2010b. Accessed January 2020, https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html
Pérez Valcárcel, J., 1998. “La orientación de las iglesias románicas del Camino de Santiago”. In Actas del Segundo Congreso Nacional de Historia de la Construcción, A Coruña, 22-24 de octubre de 1998, edited by F. Bores, J. Fernández, S. Huerta and E. Rabasa, 391–396. Madrid: Instituto Juan de Herrera, Universidad de A Coruña, Sociedad Española de Historia de la Construcción, Centro de Estudios Históricos de Obras Pública y Urbanismo and Centro de Estudios y Experimentación de Obras Públicas.
Pérez Valcárcel, J. and V. Pérez Palmero, 2018. “La orientación de las iglesias mozárabes”. España Medieval 41: 171–197. https://doi.org/10.5209/elem.60008
Rodríguez-Antón, A., C. González-García and J. A. Belmonte, 2018. “Estimating the Reliability of Digital Data Acquisition in Cultural Astronomy: The Case of Roman North Africa”. Journal of Skyscape Archaeology 3 (2): 191–206. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.34685
Stellarium, 2020. Stellarium 0.20.2 [online] Accessed June 2020 https://stellarium.org/
Vogel, C., M. Nédoncelle, B. Botte, L. De Bruyne, A. Grabar, R. Marichal, R. Mohrmann and C. Vogel, 1962. “Sol æquinoctialis. Problèmes et technique de l’orientation dans le culte chrétien”. In Archéologie paléochrétienne et culte chrétien, special issue of Revue des Sciences Religieuses 36 (3–4): 175–211. https://doi.org/10.3406/rscir.1962.2332
Yilmaz, M., 2012. “Historical Mosque Orientation in Turkey: Central-western Anatolia Region, 1150-1590”. Journal of Historical Geography 38 (4): 359–371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2012.06.002
