Catedral e Idanha a Velha

DESCRIPTION AND FORMAL ANALYSIS

Currently referred to as the «Cathedral», this church stands on the foundations of another early Christian church, built in the time of the Suevi and integrated into the kingdom of the Visigoths from 585 onwards. The baptistery close to the south door dates from the time of the Suevi, although the new basilica is the work of the Visigothic period.

Later, the mediaeval church was built on the site of this building, with some traces still being visible today, most particularly the Gothic door from the late 14th century with its simple pointed arch. Although built on earlier ruins and reusing Palaeochristian materials, its main construction may date from the Hegira 3rd / AD 9th century, with considerable remodelling in the AH 10th / AD 16th century.

The interior of the church now houses the Museu Egitanense, a museum exhibiting a whole host of inscriptions that represent an important collection of epigraphs from the period of Roman domination in the Iberian Peninsula.

This is a large basilica-shaped building. According to Palaeochristian or Muslim liturgical guidelines, which were practically the same in the Iberian Peninsula, the basilica was organised into seven aisles. The central nave is distinctive for its width, decoration and the height of its axial arches. The 12 arches, out of the 14 that existed originally, are all horseshoe arches, in a not very emphatic style characteristic of the early period of Iberian Islam.

For many years this building was deemed to be a Visigoth cathedral, because a baptistery had been found close to the south façade and also because, from the beginning of the 17th century, the high altar was moved to the north, where it remains to this day, suggesting the possibility that there may have been an earlier Christian liturgical space consisting of three bays.
These hypotheses are now disputed because the baptistery found is reputedly older than the building in question and therefore attached to another earlier church. On the other hand, the existence of a Palaeochristian basilica with its high altar facing north can be excluded.

Having discounted these hypotheses, and in spite of the incongruities, we are left to fit this building into the campaign of construction that was carried out throughout the town in the AD 9th and 10th centuries (AH 3rd–4th century), when Idanha-a-Velha (formerly Egitânia) played an important historical role in the frontier region between al-Andalus and the kingdom of León.

VIRGILIO LOPES