The designation arte (or arquitectura) de (la) repoblación (literally, "art or architecture of [the] repopulation") was first proposed by
José Camón Aznar in 1949[2] to replace the term
Mozarabic as applied to certain works of
architecture from the Christian kingdoms of northern Spain between the end of the 9th and beginning of the 11th centuries. Camón argued that these buildings were related stylistically to the
architecture of Asturias and owed little to
Andalusian styles. Moreover, since they were built by Christians living under Christian rule, neither were they Mozarabic (the
Mozarabs being the Christians of Muslim Spain).[1]
In Spanish historiography, the Repoblación is the expansion of Christian settlement in the
Duero basin and the
Meseta Central in the 9th–10th centuries.
History
The religious influences were inevitable given the presence of the Islamic state of the
Caliph of Córdoba, which was highly developed culturally, artistically and economically. However, it had long been suggested that the monumental buildings in northern Spain from this period were crafted by the modest groups of
Mozarabic immigrants that settled in the areas of repopulation when the living conditions in Muslim
al-Andalus became difficult to bear. As stated by professor Isidro Bango Torviso, suggesting that these immigrants were responsible for these buildings would be akin to suggesting that:
when the Duero River Valley was repopulated under the auspices of the Asturian-
Leonese kingdom, northerners settlers would have forsaken all their knowledge and experience and submitted themselves to the 'very rich and demonstrated creative capacity' of poor, rural southern immigrants.
The art and architecture of the Repoblación is identified as the third subset of the Hispanic
Pre-Romanesque period, by the phases that correspond to the
Visigothic art and architecture and
Asturian architecture. Its architecture is a summary of elements of diverse extraction, irregularly distributed, in such a way that on occasion elements of paleo-Christian, Visigothic or Asturian origin come to predominate, while at other times Muslim characteristics come to the fore.
Grouped
columns forming composite pillars, with
Corinthian capitals decorated with stylized elements and cinctures joining the capital to the columns.
Walls re-enforced by exterior buttresses.
Evolution of rafter ornaments to great lobed offsets that support very pronounced eaves.
Decoration similar to the Visigothic based on volutes,
swastikas, and vegetable and animal themes forming projecting borders.
A great command of the technique in construction, employing principally ashlar by
length and width.
Absence or sobriety of exterior decoration.
Diversity in the floor plans, with small proportions and discontinuous spaces covered by
cupolas (groined, segmented, ribbed of horseshoe transept, etc.).
Examples
The most representative buildings of the genre are:[citation needed]
^Although presented in a conference in 1949, it was not published and widely read until 1963. Cf. Utrero Agudo (2006), p. 35.
References
Bango Torviso, Isidro G. "Arquitectura de la decima centuria: ¿Repoblación o mozárabe?" Goya: Revista de arte122 (1974), pp. 68–75.
Bango Torviso, Isidro G. "Arquitectura de repoblación", pp. 167–216. In Javier Rivera Blanco, Francisco Javier de la Plaza Santiago and Simón Marchán Fiz (eds.), Historia del arte de Castilla y León, Vol. 1, Prehistoria, Edad Antigua y arte prerrománico. Valladolid, 1994.
Camón Aznar, J. "Arquitectura española del siglo X: Mozárabe y de la repoblación". Goya: Revista de arte52 (1963), pp. 206–19.
Canellas López, Ángel; San Vicente, Ángel. Rutas románicas de Aragón. Madrid, 1996.
Martínez Tejera, Artemio Manuel. "El contraábside en la arquitectura de la repoblación: el grupo castellano-leonés", pp. 57–76. III Curso de Cultura Medieval. Seminario: Repoblación y Reconquista (Centro de Estudios del Románico, Aguilar de Campoo, septiembre 1991). Madrid, 1993.
Martínez Tejera, Artemio Manuel. "La arquitectura cristiana hispánica de los siglos IX y X en el Regnum Astur-leonés". Argutorio14 (2004), pp. 9–12
Monedero Bermejo, Miguel Ángel. La arquitectura de la repoblación en la provincia de Cuenca. Cuenca, 1982.
Moreno, Manuel Gómez. Iglesias mozárabes. Madrid, 1917.
Utrero Agudo, María de los Ángeles. Iglesias tardoantiguas y altomedievales en la península ibérica: análisis arqueológico y sistemas de abovedamiento. Madrid, 2006.