Remains of arrabal mosque, Calatrava la Vieja

Mixed horseshoe arch, currently preserved on the north façade of the church of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación, some 300 m southeast of the walled enclosure of Calatrava la Vieja. It was discovered during repair work on the hermitage carried out in 1994. The archaeological study of the building has shown that it belongs to the entrance door to the prayer hall of an old mosque built in the 10th century, belonging to the eastern suburb (“arrabal”) of the Islamic city. At that time, the mosque was surrounded by a dense group of houses that reached the banks of the Guadiana river. The mosque was Christianised at the beginning of the 13th century, and then replaced by the church of Santa María de los Mártires. Hervás Herrera, Miguel Ángel & Retuerce Velasco, Manuel (2009): “Calatrava la Vieja, primera sede de la Orden Militar de Calatrava”, en Ángel Madrid Medina y Luís Rafael Villegas Díaz (eds.): El nacimiento de la orden de Calatrava. Primeros tiempos de expansión (siglos XII y XIII), Ciudad Real, pp. 83-140.