BASÍLICAS SUBURBANAS DE AMPURIAS

Emporion (currently (currently, Empúries in Catalan or Ampurias in Spanish) is an urban center today unpopulated and an archaeological site. Founded as a commercial colony by the Greeks from Massalia (Marseille) natives of Phocea, near an Indiketa settlement, it continued as urban entity during Roman and Visigothic rule.

According to traditional historiography, Emporion would become extinct around the middle of the 3rd century AD, surviving only the name and prestige of a long tradition. However, the archaeological campaigns of the last decades and new investigations in the emerging field of Late Antiquity reveal the continuity of settlement and highlight how Emporion was not only the <the only Roman ciuitas in the northern territory of what is now the Girona region, but also the only late-antique episcopal see in this coastal area. Consequently, from the reconsideration of documentary and, above all, archaeological data, the panorama of Late-Ancient Empúries appears very rich.

The oldest reference to Christian Ampurias appears in the Pasionario Hispánico, where it is reported that Felix the African passed through Emporion at the end of the century III –before being martyred in Gerunda–, although there are doubts about the veracity of this news. In any case, the first sure data about the episcopal seat corresponds to the year 516, when its bishop Paulus signed the minutes of the Council of Tarragona. They are followed by Casontio (a. 540 and 546), Fructuoso (a. 589), Galano or Gaiano (a. 592 and 599), Sisuldo (a. 633), Donumdei (a. 646 and 653) and Gaudila (a. 683 , 688 and 693).

Due to the Muslim occupation, the episcopal headquarters disappeared. This, then, would be the moment of extinction of the city or what was left of it. In the year 785 –when the Carolingian conquest of the Girona territories took place– this episcopal seat would no longer exist, and it is no longer mentioned in the VitaHludowici imperatoris , in contrast to other cities in eastern Tarraconensis that were episcopal seats and that are mentioned in this work.

During the Christianization process of Ampurias –started like so many other Hispanic cities during the Late Empire–, the paradigm shift is detected, above all, through its suburban necropolises, in some of which funerary basilicas and martyrdom. Specifically, remains of suburban basilicas have been documented in: Santa Margarida, Santa Magdalena, Santa Reparada de Cinc Claus, and Sant Vicenç. The one known as the ‘Basilica of the Neapolis’, intra-urban, is described individually in another file (see Paleochristian Basilica of Ampurias); Similarly, the basilica of Sant Martí d’Empúries will be studied in another file, since it is located within a small fortified nucleus of late ancient origin and topographically separated from the Alto Imperial city.

Santa Margarida: Between 1954 and 1957 the Romanesque remains of the Church of Santa Margarida were the object of archaeological excavations under the direction of M. Almagro and P. de Palol. Starting in 1994, a new phase of research has been undertaken under the direction of J. M. Nolla, who is currently continuing in his school, and who is bringing to light an architectural complex around the late-antique funerary basilica. In light of the data recovered, a valid interpretation of the place would be that of a suburban basilica with the functions of an episcopal pantheon (part of a bishop’s funerary lauda has appeared). Due to its magnitude, it has also been identified with a monastery (not incompatible with the function of a pantheon) and even with the episcopal group, although its location outside the walls rules out this last possibility.

Santa Magdalena: 100 m. away from the church of Santa Margarida (n. 149), the vestiges of another church are located, the dedication of which has recently been identified as Santa Magdalena. The currently visible remains would correspond to a 10th century church, but the structures at this site cover a complex structural sequence made up of several construction phases included within a broad chronological arc. The first corresponds to a closed, quadrangular enclosure, which delimited a mausoleum or a funerary monument of the martyrdom type, dateable around the beginning of the 5th century, with an octagonal interior and a dome cover. The second phase (VI century) involves the amortization of the mausoleum and the construction of a rectangular church with a single nave within the walled perimeter of the first phase.

Santa Reparada de Cinc Claus: It is the only one that remains standing and in use of all the suburban basilicas of Emporio. It can currently be visited as a museographic space within the framework of the Víctor Català route organized by the Museum of l’Escala. Its most primitive phases have emerged in the subsoil of the current chapel, of medieval construction and with various repairs.

Sant Vicenç: Although the construction phases identified in the remains of this temple date back to the Middle Ages, the context of a late-antique necropolis in this suburban place suggests that in the future, when new archaeological excavations are carried out, It will be possible to document the early Christian architectural phases, as has happened in the rest of the Emporion churches.

Jordina Sales-Carbonell for URBS RREGIA

Nolla Brufau, J.M. 1995: “Els cementiris tardo-antics de la Neàpolis emporitana”, en IV Reunió d’arqueologia cristiana hispànica, Barcelona, 99-105.
-Tremoleda Trilla, J., 2007: “La seu episcopal emporitana” “Les esglésies emporitanes”, en El cristianisme a Empúries: dels orígens a l’Església actual, ed. N. Amich, X. Aquilué y J. Monturiol, Girona, 24-27, 34-38
-Sales Carbonell, J., 2012: “Basílicas de Empúries”, en Las Construcciones cristianas de la Tarraconensis durante la Antigüedad Tardía: Topografía, arqueología e historia, Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 244-258.
-Nolla Brufau, J. M.; Tremoleda, J. (Eds.), 2015: Empúries a l’antiguitat tardana, Monografies Emporitanes, 15.2, 2 Vols., Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya-Empúries, Girona.

Muaeu de l’Escala