[Andalusi Studies] The Church of San Vicente under the Cordoban mosque, a myth

[ISABEL FIERRO BELLO]

Fernando Arce
http://cordopolis.es/2017/12/03/fernando-arce-la-existencia-de-la-basilica-de-san-vicente-bajo-la-mezquita-es-un-mito/

See also Fernando Arce, La supuesta basílica de San Vicente en  
Córdoba: de mito histórico a obstinación historiográfica, AL-QANTARA  
XXXVI 1, enero-junio 2015 pp. 11-44
http://al-qantara.revistas.csic.es/index.php/al-qantara/article/viewFile/337/329

Underneath the Great-Mosque of Cordoba,
there are some archaeological remains which
have been the origin of several historiographical
debates. The core of these debates was the
idea that there were previous Christian buildings
in the site later demolished to make room
for the Umayyad mosque. However, the
documented church of Saint Vincent, for
the astonishment of many, did not appear in the
excavations made in the 1930s. Much later, set
aside the myth, but never truly forgotten, the
idea that there might have been a full episcopal
complex suceeded the other. Recent historigraphical
developments are building new
interpretations upon an archaeological evidence,
that drove archaeologists, in the past,
to deny definitively the presence of these
ecclesiastical premises. This article argues
what others have already stated: that according
to the present archaeological knowledge,
no evidence shows that there were previous
Christian buildings under the Umayyad
mosque. In terms of our conclusions, the article
is not original. The main aim of this contribution
is to offer a new and neccesary
contextualizacion of textual and archaeological
interpretations of emphirical data.

Maribel Fierro