Reccopolis Basilica

By the Editors of the Madain Project

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The Reccopolis Basilica is a "basilica style palace" in the archaelogical site of Cerro de la Olíva. According to Welles 1948, a cache of coins was discovered, which fixed the date of construction of basilica as before 580–83 and indicated the reach of cultural connections, with gold coins of the Merovingian series, Suevic coins from Galicia and some of Justinian II, as well as coins from Visigothic Hispania itself.

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Overview

circa 100 CE

The ruined facade and the main entrance to the structure. It was of basilica construction, with a central nave separated by solid walls from the flanking naves. These exited into the transept, but did not communicate directly with the nave. Its hemispherical apse was rectangular in outer appearance. A deep narthex was entered by a single central door.

The basilica was built in two separat phases, originally a modest rural Roman church from the 4th or early 5th century CE was built in accordance with the Hispanic-Roman population that inhabited the settlement. Later the church was rehabilitated turning it into a basilica and the settlement became a city.

In the 1940s a treasure chest of gold coins was discovered that had been hidden when the city’s basilica was built.

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