SESSION 3 | MARCH 2 | 14:00-15:45

Chair Santiago Macias (NOVA FCSH)

The appropriation and Christian transformation of the mosques in the kingdom of Valencia (13th-14th centuries)

14:00-14:30 | Josep Torro (U. Valencia) and Alexandre Mateu Picó (U. Valencia)

The Christian colonization of Andalusian spaces is a field of study revitalized in recent years both in the analysis of rural and urban spaces. In this communication, we will approach it from the perspective of the appropriation of urban mosques and their transformation. In the Valencian case, shortly after the conquest, the diocese of Valencia was instituted, to which the king gave the mosques. Over time, the buildings would have been adapted to the Christian way of building temples. This is the story that has been reflected in the general bibliography. However, the process involves a much more complex problem of its own. First, there were mosques of various types, from aljamas to private oratories. The concession of these buildings to the bishop of Valencia resolved a conflict in which the bishopric renounced properties dependent on the mosques and the third of the tithe in exchange for the properties that had had a religious function. However, all these buildings did not become Christian temples, since the number of mosques in the Andalusian cities was much higher than the later churches. In this paper, we will discuss several cases of appropriation of mosques in the cities of Valencia and Sagunto. We will analyze how the aljama mosques were transformed into cathedrals and arch-priestly churches respectively. Thus, an approach will be made to the buildings that were effectively converted into churches, to periodize how this transition was carried out from a constructive point of view. However, we will also focus on cases in which a mosque became the property of the bishopric of Valencia but was not used by the bishopric for a religious function, but was managed by the religious authorities to obtain a rent, which could be established for third parties. This type of real estate management provides very indicative information that allows us to understand in a much better way the modifications of the Andalusian cities carried out by the Christian settlers.

From the Roman cryptoporticus to the Medieval mosque: the transformation of an urban space in the long diachrony

14:30-15:00|  Ana Caessa (CML); Nuno Mota (CML); Ana Beatriz Santos (UNIARQ|FCT); Susana Garcia (Osteolab – ISCSP | MNHNC-UL); Mário Gouveia (IEM – NOVA |INCM); Pedro Vasco Martins (FormaUrbis Lab - FAUL)

The archaeological interventions developed, between 2015 and 2020, in the area above the cryptoporticus of the port thermal baths of Felicitas Iulia Olisipo (commonly called Roman Galleries of Rua da Prata), allowed the discovery and registration of contextual and structural evidence of equipment built in the riverside area over two millennia. The medieval mosque, or oratory, identified there, inside a Pombaline building, is, so far, the only building of this nature and chronology found in Lisbon. With all due limitations, it opens new perspectives of urbanistic and symbolic analysis, namely concerning the use of that space.

Josep Torró. Professor of Medieval History at the Universitat de València – Estudi General. He has studied the expansion and frontier dynamics of the Iberian Christian kingdoms, with particular attention to the Crown of Aragon and the kingdom of Valencia. His lines of work include the military organization of the conquests, the procedures for the distribution of movable and territorial booty, the lordly domination of the Muslim populations subdued and the contrast between the forms of organization of urban and rural space of the Christian-Latin and Muslim worlds.

Alexandre Mateu. BA degree in History and a MA degree in History of the Formation of the Western World at the University of Valencia, as also a MA degree in Archaeology at the University of Granada. PhD student at the Departament d'Història Medieval i Ciències i Tècniques Historiogràfiques de la Universitat de València - Estudi General, with a thesis on the Christian colonization of Andalusian urban and domestic spaces in the kingdom of Valencia.

Ana Caessa. Archaeologist, BA degree in Archaeology from the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra and a MA degree degree in Archaeology from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto. Senior Technician in History and Archaeology at Lisbon City Hall.

Nuno Mota. Archaeologist, BA degree in Archaeology, School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon. He is a senior technician in History and Archaeology at Lisbon City Hall.

Ana Beatriz Santos. Archaeologist, BA degree and a master in Archaeology from the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon. She is currently a grant holder of the FCT, at the same faculty, and she is developing her PhD thesis on the topic "Animal Consumption and Management in Olisipo between the 2nd and 5th Centuries BC."

Susana Garcia. PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Coimbra. Lecturer at the Higher Institute of Social and Political Sciences and Curator of the Anthropology Collections of the National Museum of Natural History and Science, University of Lisbon. Coordinator, since 2018, of Osteolab - Human Osteology Laboratory of ISCSP. She has been doing research, mainly, in the field of Paleopathology in the medieval and modern Portuguese populations.

Mário Gouveia. Historian, he has a BA degree in History (Archaeology) and a MA in History (Medieval History) from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon. Integrated researcher at the Institute of Medieval Studies at the New University of Lisbon. A senior technician at the Publishing and Culture Unit of Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, acting as chief curator of the Casa da Moeda Museum.

Pedro Vasco Martins. Architect. Graduated in Urban Management Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University of Lisbon. He has developed a doctoral thesis with the theme "A Persistência das Formas Urbanas. Leitura das Pré-existências na Construção da Cidade Portuguesa", with a scholarship from the FCT. He’s a research member of the FormaUrbis Lab, at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon.