A hill in the north-west of Murcia is forcing historians to rethink some of the most entrenched ideas about the early centuries of Al-Andalus. Excavations on the Cerro de la Virgen de Calasparra have brought to light an early Christian church that not only survived the Muslim conquest of 713, but remained in use for almost two further centuries.
The study (source in Spanish), published in the scientific journal "Salduie" by researchers David Martínez and Rubén Fernández, documents the existence of a temple founded around the first half of the 5th century that appears to have retained its religious function at least until the 9th century. If this chronology is fully confirmed, it would amount to one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the continuity of Christian worship in the Iberian Peninsula during the early years of Moorish occupation.
The church was identified thanks to several survey and excavation campaigns carried out in the area since 2021. Archaeologists describe it as a single-nave building with a tripartite chancel, a layout they consider characteristic of certain "late antique" temples.
"This represents an architectural model with notable parallels in Visigothic churches such as Santa Cristina de Lena," the authors of the study point out, referring to this church in Asturias. They also note that the sacristies and apses show similarities with some "parish and episcopal" churches in Syria, a connection that reflects the use of similar architectural models in the Mediterranean during Late Antiquity.
