Visigothic kingdom
Recópolis
Today: Zorita de los Canes, Spain
- Years
- 578–711
- Role
- Leovigild's new city
Leovigild had it built in 578 in honour of his son Reccared, as John of Biclar records, and it was the head of a province called Celtiberia. It is the only city raised from nothing on state initiative in early medieval Europe, with its palace complex, its church, its monumental gate and its commercial buildings on a hill above the Tagus. Local life declined in the mid 7th century, Muslims occupied it in the 8th, and it was abandoned in the 9th in favour of Zorita.
What to see today
- Parque arqueológico de Recópolis (Recópolis): Archaeological site, c. 578 to 650