IGLESIA RUPESTRE DE COÍN
Historic environment
This monumental complex has been dated between the 8th and 9th centuries, although an earlier chronology can also be estimated. From a planimetric perspective, it is a set of three main naves and two accessory ones, similar to the one existing in Ronda and Archidona.
During the 20th century, these caves, discovered at the beginning of that century, have always been privately owned, exposed to deterioration because they served as a place to store merchandise. Despite this, the complex is better preserved than others in the province.
Description
From a planimetric perspective, it is a set of three main naves and two accessory ones, similar to the one existing in Ronda and Archidona. It is made up of five holes, with other small cavities on both sides of that central core. The three central ones are interconnected by a corridor, while the two ends (probably monastic rooms without liturgical use) each offer independent access. All of them, central and lateral, are open to the outside through their respective openings.
Outside, a courtyard precedes the cult space of the five naves. Its current perimeter is delimited by the dividing wall with the road, the adjoining buildings and the natural rock façade, excavated to create five portals that correspond to the five naves, some of them flared to allow the entry of outside light. It is a wall (30 m long, 14 m high) with two buttresses that has always been hidden by vegetation and a high outer wall. At one of the lateral ends of the façade you can see the beginning of what looks like a wall of stone blocks. From the exterior patio and from the corridor it can be seen how some of the entrances have been flared to facilitate the penetration of natural light.
The complex has been excavated in the limestone rock, preserving a good number of details of that style: horseshoe arches, niches, buttresses, simulated gabled roofs, bench for liturgical service, triumphal arch to separate the nave and the chancel from the church, different types of vaults, ventilation galleries, escape routes…
As scholars of this cave complex point out, the three central naves, the ones with the largest excavated surface and the deepest, organize the whole complex, imitating a basilica plan that is not such given the independence of each of them. This central sector represents the highest percentage (almost 70%) in the occupation of the total area of the complex, which adds up to 246 m2. Actually, from the E, the one numbered as cave 2 would correspond to the church itself, divided into three sectors: the foot of the church, the nave itself and the presbytery, these last two sectors separated by a gate, as shown. infer from the existence of cracks in the walls. The height of the ceilings decreases by sections, while the width increases. In the farthest sector we find the presbytery in the manner of an apse, the area with the greatest width and the lowest roof, with a carved bench attached to the lateral end wall and a semicircular niche (shrine?) in the front end of the head, just at the same height as the bench and forming a corner with it.
This monumental complex has been dated between the 8th and 9th centuries, although an earlier chronology can also be estimated. From a planimetric perspective, it is a set of three main naves and two accessory ones, similar to the one existing in Ronda and Archidona.
Virgilio Martínez for UBS REGIA
Other interesting information
The set is closed and only opens in specific situations
Bibliography
M. Riu Riu, 1969: “Cuevas eremitorios y centros cenobíticos rupestres en Andalucía oriental”, Actas VIII Congreso Internacional de Arqueología Cristiana (Barcelona), Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana/CSIC, Roma, 431-443.
R. Puertas Tricas, 1986: “Los conjuntos rupestres mozárabes de Coín y Archidona”, Cuadernos de la Alhambra, 22.
R. Puertas Tricas, 2006: Iglesias rupestres de Málaga, CEDMA, Málaga, 133-158.
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