RT Journal Article
T1 Exploring the landscape dimension of the early medieval churches. A case study from A Mariña region (north-west Spain)
A1 Sánchez Pardo, José Carlos
A1 Carrero Pazos, Miguel
A1 Fernández Ferreiro, Marcos
A1 Espinosa Espinosa, David
A1 Espinosa Espinosa, David
K1 Early medieval churches
K1 Predictive model
K1 Ecclesiastical landscapes
K1 Locational dynamics
K1 Galicia
AB Despite the long tradition of studies on early medieval churches, little is still known about the reasons behind the selection of specific places for building churchesbetween 5th to 10th centuries AD. Thanks to some rich historical documents, the region of A Mariña (Galicia, NW Iberia) represents an exceptional case study in order to analysethe spatial logic behind the creation of the early medieval ecclesiastical landscapes. This objective is pursued by means of the application of GIS and spatial statistics for the studyof the locational patterns of these first Christian buildings. As this is a first attempt, westarted from the formal analysis of topographic variables; then a settlement model for thechurches was defined, next used to analyse specific trends on their locational dynamics. The results allow us to propose that the location of the early medieval churches should berelated to visual and territorial control over some specific areas of the landscape (mainlysettlements and natural resources). This suggests that, despite of the variety of churchfounders, some kind of collective planning of the church network did happen during the early middle ages. This fact can be historically explained as a key part of power strategiesaimed to the creation of a new territorial articulation during this period.
PB Taylor and Francis
SN 0143-3768
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/38919
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/38919
LA eng
NO Sánchez-Pardo, J. C., Carrero-Pazos, M., Fernández-Ferreiro, M., & Espinosa-Espinosa, D. (2020). Exploring the landscape dimension of the early medieval churches. A case study from A Mariña region (north-west Spain). Landscape History, 41(1), 5–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/01433768.2020.1753977
DS Minerva
RD 27 abr 2026