Torres de ascendencia islámica en las comarcas de Calatayud y Daroca

SANMIGUEL MATEO, Agustín: Torres de ascendencia islámica en las comarcas de Calatayud y Daroca, CEB, Calatayud, 1998, Centro de Estudios Bilbilitanos, 57, 540 p., 356 il., 6 map., 17x24 cm. ISBN: 84-7820-391-5.

Sinopsis: Las torres mudéjares, herencia artística del Islam, son, tal vez por su singularidad, lo más emblemático del patrimonio arquitectónico aragonés. En las comarcas de Calatayud y de Daroca, además de concentrarse buena parte de estas torres, es donde se hallan la mayor diversidad estructural y decorativa, y también los ejemplos más antiguos. Se propone aquí que quizá algunas de estas torres fueron edificadas como alminares, y que posiblemente parte de sus características se deban a influencia oriental.

Abstrat: In the West of the Autonomous Community of Aragon (Spain), in the areas of Calatayud and Daroca, there are left numerous and important constructions, mainly castles and churches, which are legacy of the long presence of Muslim people in this land, not only from Islamic times (VIIIth to XIIth centuries), but also from Christian times (XIIth to XVIIth centuries).

Only towers are studied here, specially those with a religious function, presently all of them church bell towers.

Firstly, their characteristics, such as materials, structure and decoration are treated at large, secondly, they are analyzed individually, classified in several groups. Several towers not mentioned in generalist works are  introduced, considering, also, the possibility that some of them be, partly at least, re-utilized minarets: in other words, that is before 1120, date in which the Christian conquest took place.

In that case, against the commonly accepted idea, it would be very likely that many of the singular characteristic of Islamic ascent's art in Aragon, which is known as "Aragonese mudéjar art", be not a result of North African influence, from Almohade epoch (XIIth and XIIIth centuries), but rather Oriental, from Irani area, and from Abbasid, Buyid and, specially, Seldjucid epoch (IXth to XIIth centuries). Later artistic influence ot the Arab kingdom of Zaragoza in al-Magrib, is sufficiently proven, both for Almoravid and Almohade times.

In any way -and though so far it is not possible to fix with absolute accuracy its chronolgy, which will in the future be determined with new methods- there is no doubt about the historical and artistic interest of these towers, emblematic testimony of the Islamic past of Aragon.

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