BASILICA DE LA ISLA DEL REY

The King’s Island (Illa del Rei in Catalan) is located within the natural harbor of Maó, approximately in its center. It has an area of 4.2 ha and reaches 14 meters above sea level. At the eastern end there are still remains of some buildings that would have been built between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. C. Numerous researchers consider that they belonged to a monastic community. It has even been claimed that the monks who appear in the Circular of Bishop Severo, written at the beginning of the 5th century, could be from there.

Around the basilica, various orthogonal constructions have been documented, ordered by corridors, some of them domestic or productive. Inside them you can see several tanks with quadrangular or rectangular floors with opus signinum coating. There is also a rather complex system for collecting or discharging rainwater, and a possible portico, of which two column bases would have been found still in situ.

The presence of a possible tower or lighthouse has been proposed and the existence of a stibadium stands out. Although in North Africa and Hispania the estibadia are linked to the funerary and/or martyrdom world, their liturgical use is under discussion. For the one on Isla del Rey, a date from the end of the 6th century to the 7th century has been proposed. It has been calculated that up to 7 diners could fit in it and there is no doubt about its religious character.

A notable fact about this site is the discovery of abundant clearly imported marble elements, white or light grey, corresponding, above all, to mensae. Among the lithic materials found, there are also a minimum of three millstones, and abundant fragments of slate.

There is discussion as to whether the Isla del Rey basilica had three naves or a single nave, although the first option is currently more accepted. Even so, other researchers see a rectangular building as possible, with a single nave with two side galleries, rather than three naves. In any case, it seems likely that the church would have had two very different phases.

The central body of the basilica has a tripartite structure in which the sanctuarium is distinguished, where the altar was located. In this, two capsellae had been excavated to house relics. Below is an intermediate space that separates the sanctuary from the nave. The complex was paved with a mosaic whose themes were organized in relation to the liturgy. In the other two naves there were also pavements made of mosaic, but these were found to be very deteriorated, especially those in the southern nave. In the northern nave or gallery there was a small circular pool, in the same style as the one in Fornás de Torelló. The preserved part was made with stones bound with mortar and presented an opus signinum plaster. It should also be noted that the Isla del Rey basilica is very similar to that of Fornàs de Torelló, both in terms of the mosaics and its architectural ensembles.

The basilica of the Isla del Rey, due to parallels with other sites, has been dated, above all, to the 6th century. But the truth is that, like all of the Balearic Islands, it presents serious dating problems. In this sense, it is worth mentioning that there are also those who do not rule out a foundation in the 5th or 7th century.

The church and the other rooms would have been built of masonry, that is, of unworked or very little worked stones, between 15 and 40 cm. But it must be borne in mind that not all the walls are made in the same way, and that quite large and well-squared ashlars were also used, which would have been mixed with little or no worked stones. It is not ruled out that there were walls made dry, but there are also those that have compacted earth used as a binder. It seems that lime mortar was also occasionally used, for example, on the pillars. The walls usually measure between 0.6 and 0.7 m wide. Fragments of lime and remains of mortar that surely belonged to the walls of the basilica were documented. Some of them, very large, could correspond to the plastering of the walls. Apart from the mosaic pavements with opus signinum preparation, trodden earth and lime mortar pavements have been documented, as well as areas where the floor was retouched natural rock.

Various burials of adult individuals have been identified inside the basilica and in the adjoining rooms, and everything indicates that they date from the time it was in use. The location of a privileged tomb located in the apse of the church, behind the altar, allows us to propose that the basilica could originate from a memory of a very unique character. In the southeast of the complex, below a supposed modern-era cemetery, various tombs were excavated in the rock, the so-called “olerdolanas”, which could well be from the 5th to 10th centuries AD. c.

Mateu Riera Rullán for URBS REGIA

SERRA, Mª. L., (1967): “La basílica cristiana de la Isla del Rey (Mahón)”, I Reunión Nacional de Arqueología Paleocristiana 1966, Vitoria, 27-42 .
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ALCAIDE, S., (2011): Arquitectura cristiana balear en la Antigüedad tardía (siglos V-X d.C.), Tesi doctoral de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Departament d’Història i Història de l’Art, Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/32933.
CAU, M.A. – MAS, C. – RIPOLL, G. – TUSET, F. – ORFILA, M. y RIVAS, M.J., (2012): “El conjunto eclesiástico de la Illa del Rei (Menorca, Islas Baleares)”, Hortus Artium Medievalium, 18, Zagreb-Motovum, 415-432.
RIERA RULLAN, M., (2017): El monacat insular de la Mediterrània Occidental. El monestir de Cabrera (Balears, segles V-VIII), Studia Archaeologiae Chritianae, 1, Ateneu Sant Pacià, Facultat Antoni Gaudí d’Història, Arqueologia i Arts Cristianes, Facultat de Teologia de Catalunya i Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, Barcelona.

Basílica de la Isla del Rey

MOSAICO DE LA BASÍLICA DE S’ILLA DEL REI

Basílica de La Isla del Rey