Basilica of Son Peretó

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Excavation of the former apse of the basilica

Basilica of Son Peretó ( Catalan Basílica de Son Peretó ) is the name of a former church from late antiquity - early medieval times between Manacor and Sant Llorenç des Cardassar on the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca . The exact construction time of the basilica is not known; towards the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century it is said to have served as a Christian house of worship. It is believed that it fell victim to a fire in the 7th or 8th century.

Find history

In 1908, while working in the fields on the Son Peretó estate, five kilometers northeast of the city of Manacor , a farmer came across the first floor mosaic of the early Christian basilica. From 1912 the pastor and amateur archaeologist Joan Aguiló i Pinya , who bought the area after the discovery of the mosaic, began to carry out excavations. The finds and mosaics were put together in a collection that the municipality of Manacor acquired in 1926 to set up an archaeological museum. They are now in the Manacor Historical Museum . The archaeological site of Son Peretó , on which excavations are still being carried out, was registered as an archaeological monument (Monument arqueològic) in 1931 under the number RI-51-0000413 .

location

The archaeological site of the Basilica of Son Peretó is located in the area of Polígon 5 (' Corridor  5') of the municipality of Manacor, directly on the border with the municipality of Sant Llorenç des Cardassar. During the construction of the road between Manacor and Sant Llorenç, today's MA-15, the straight route was deviated from and the course of the road was led in a small arc southeast around the site of the basilica. The road is about 60 meters from the southern corner of the excavation site. This is located in the eastern area of ​​the Son Peretó estate . Adjacent to this are the Son Trobat estate to the northeast and the Son Nadal estate to the east, across the road , both already belonging to the municipality of Sant Llorenç des Cardassar.

A dirt road leads from the MA-15 towards the northwest at km 54.4 to the site where the remains of the Basilica of Son Peretó were found. After about 100 meters you will reach an entrance gate on the right with a parking space for vehicles in front of it. The excavation site, which can be visited free of charge during the day, is protected by a chain-link fence surrounding it. Other excavation campaigns are carried out from time to time, such as from May 27th to June 22nd, 2012 under the direction of Miguel Ángel Cau from the University of Barcelona , Magdalena Salas Burguera, director of the Historical Museum of Manacor, and Mateu Riera Rullan from the Autonomous University Barcelona . They are related to the securing and restoration of the archaeological site and making it accessible to visitors, financed by the municipality of Manacor and the Consell de Mallorca since 2005.

description

Model of the nave

The base of the former basilica is about 21 meters long and 14 meters wide. There was an approximate east-west orientation of the building, with the main axis on the side of the choir or sanctuary with the altar being shifted slightly to the south-east, so that the church is aligned precisely with the position of Jerusalem 3000 kilometers away , that is, with the assumed " Heavenly Jerusalem " was easted . The basilica had three naves . Two rows of columns separated the central nave from the two side aisles. The roof was probably made of tegulae on wooden beams. Mosaics with figurative and geometric motifs were laid out on the entire floor of the interior , mostly made of white, red and black mosaic stones. They came from the middle of the 6th century and refer to North African and Palestinian influences in terms of design . After the basilica was found, the floor mosaics were removed at the beginning of the 20th century and re-laid on reinforced concrete supports. Some restored mosaics are on display in the Manacor Historical Museum.

Gravesites on the site

The basilica's altar stood in the sanctuary in the apse on the east side of the interior. The foundation stone, which, like the mosaics, is in the Historical Museum in Manacor, has been preserved from him. As is often the case in the central and western Mediterranean region, there was a table with four legs set into a rectangular sandstone base , in the middle of which was the box with the relics under the table . A baptistery, the baptistery , was attached to the basilica in the west . There are two cross-shaped baptismal fonts , a smaller one in the west and a larger one in the east. The eastern one has steps on two sides that lead down to a baptismal font and was used for the rite of immersing the whole body in the water. Examination of the floor revealed several tombs within the baptistery, a liturgical rarity. The chronological classification of the burial site was not possible due to the lack of a uniform floor covering.

After the resumption of excavations by Pere de Palol i Salellas in 1967 , the basilica of Son Peretó including the baptistery was restored in the 1980s on the basis of the criteria customary at that time. The walls of the building were raised above the originally remaining height in order to make the overall structure more recognizable. The dividing line between the existing walls and subsequent additions is marked by a row of bricks running just above the ground. The restoration also extended to the remains of the buildings to the west and south of the baptistery, which served as living, storage and burial rooms. Since 2005 restorations, excavations, mapping and preservation of finds have been carried out by the Historical Museum of Manacor and the University of Barcelona. In 2011, several coins and pendants were discovered in the sector south of the Baptistery. Furthermore, the grave of an older man over 60 years old, possibly a priest or bishop, as well as glass and ceramic remains were found.

  • Finds from Son Peretó in the Historical Museum of Manacor

  • Foundation stone of the altar of the basilica

  • Floor mosaic with tomb inscription from the Baleria

  • Ceramic pot from the 5th to 10th centuries

  • Gravestone with a Byzantine cross

literature

  • Rafael Ferrer Massanet: La gran Basilica de Son Peretó: El descubrimiento contado con sencillez . Palma de Mallorca 1953.
  • D. Iturgaiz: Baptisterio doble de la basílica de Son Peretó. In: Rivista di archeologia cristiana 39, 1963, pp. 279-287.
  • Xavier Barral i Altet: Dos fragments més del mosaic de paviment de la basilica de Son Peretó (Mallorca) . Instituto de Archeologia y prehistoria, 1972.
  • Mateu Riera Rullan: El conjunt paleocristià de Son Peretó (Manacor): projecte de revisió i d'adequació . 1. Trobada d'Arqueòlegs de les Illes Balears, Manacor, 15/16 de Setembre de 2006. Consell de Mallorca, Departament de Cultura i Patrimoni, 2012 ( online [accessed October 24, 2012]).

Web links

Commons : Basílica de Son Peretó  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pere Xamena i Fiol: Mallorca - The story . A summary (=  El Llaüt Transmediterràni / 1 ). Artífex Cultural, Palma 1999, ISBN 978-84-605-8821-4 , Chapter V: Simple Christian basilicas, p. 30 .
  2. ↑ a b c Jutta Christoph: Son Peretó: Early Christian search for traces. Mallorca Zeitung , accessed on October 24, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Museums in Mallorca. Historical Museum Museu d'Història de Manacor. www.private-holiday.de/mallorca/museu-d-historia-de-manacor.html, accessed on September 4, 2017 .
  4. ^ Information sheet from the Museu d'Història de Manacor in the late antique room.
  5. ↑ Lista del Ministerio del Interior. WML files. wmflabs.org, accessed October 24, 2012 .
  6. ↑ Bartomeu Font i Tous (topògraf municipal): Mapa topogràfic del terme municipal de Manacor . 1: 40,000. Ed .: Ajuntament de Manacor. Oficines d'Informació Turrística, 2007.
  7. ↑ Byzantine Settlement of Son Pereto ( Memento of 15 April 2011 at the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Basílica tardoromana de Son Peretó. Ajuntament de Manacor, Delegació de Turisme, accessed October 24, 2012 (Catalan).
  9. ^ Byzantine Settlement of Son Peretó - Restoration and Excavation. www.archaeospain.com, November 19, 2011, archived from the original on May 28, 2012 ; accessed on October 24, 2012 (English).
  10. ^ Basílica de Son Peretó. Information boards at the excavation site.
  11. ^ Byzantine Settlement of Son Peretó - Program overview. (No longer available online.) Www.archaeospain.com, November 19, 2011, archived from the original on June 28, 2012 ; accessed on October 24, 2012 (English).
  12. ↑ M. Poquet: El yacimiento de Son Peretó Perfila su perímetro con las últimas excavaciones. ultimahora.es, accessed October 24, 2012 (Spanish).
  13. ↑ El misterio del esqueleto de un anciano en Son Peretó. www.diariodemallorca.es, archived from the original on August 24, 2011 ; Retrieved October 24, 2012 (Spanish).

Coordinates: 39 ° 35 '47.1 "  N , 3 ° 15' 55"  E