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Palencia
KNOWLEDGE OF Palencia
Palencia is a city in the northwest of the Tierra de Campos of central Spain, the capital of the province of Palencia in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon. The municipality had a population of 80,801 in 2002.
Palencia contains a few sights. The Roman bridge across the Carrion was replaced by the medieval one of three arches: the old section of the city is on the left bank, the modern suburban development on the right bank. The old city walls more than 10 meters high can still be traced; the alamedas or promenades along them were laid out in 1778. The flamboyant Gothic Cathedral built from 1321 to 1504, dedicated to San Antolín, stands over a low vaulted Visigothic crypt and its museum contains a number of important works of art, including a retablo of twelve panels by Juan de Flandes, court painter to Queen Isabella of Castile. The Archeological Museum contains Celtiberian ceramics. Palencia is also famous for the 13th-century church of San Miguel and the Benedictine monastery of San Zoilo, housed in an 18th-century rococo structure by Juan de Badajoz.
Under Rome. The fortified Celtiberian settlement, the chief town of the Vaccaei, was rendered as Pallantia by Strabo and Ptolemy and the Romans, a version possibly of the Celtic root pala, "plain". The city was starved into submission in the 2nd century BCE. The little Roman garrison city was insignificant compared to the Roman villas of Late Antiquity. Archeologists have uncovered the remains of Roman villas at "La Olmeda" and at the "Quintanilla de la Cueza," where the fragments of mosaic floors are spectacularly refined. According to the 5th-century Galician chronicler Idatius, the city of Palencia was all but destroyed (457) in the Visigothic wars against the Suevi: the date falls in the reign of Theodoric II, whose power center still lay far to the east, in Aquitania. When the Visigoths conquered the territory, however, they retained the rural villa system in establishing the Campos Góticos.
Under the Bishops. In the city itself, a Catholic bishopric of Palencia had been founded in the 3rd century or earlier (Flórez, España Sagrada, vol. viii), if its bishop was among those assembled in the 3rd century to depose Basilides, bishop of Astorga. With the arrival of effective Visigothic power, official Arians and opposition Catholics disputed the bishopric of Palencia. Priscillian's ascetic heresy, which originated in Galicia, spread over the Tierra de Campos ruled by the Arian Visigoths, and was opposed by Toribius, Bishop of Astorga. Maurila, an Arian bishop established in Palencia by Leovigild, followed King Reccared's conversion to Catholicism (587), and in 589 he assisted at the Third Council of Toledo. Bishop Conantius, the biographer of Saint Ildephonsus, assisted at synods and councils in Toledo and composed music and a book of prayers from the Psalms; he ruled the see for more than thirty years, and had for pupil Fructuosus of Braga.
Under the Moors. When the Moors arrived in the early 8th century, resistance was fragmented among bishops in control of the small walled towns, and the territorial magnates in their fortified villas. A concerted resistance seems to have been ineffective, and the fragmented system crumbled villa by villa. Palencia was insignificant: Moorish writers only once cite the border city in the division of the provinces previous to the Ummayyad dynasty. The diocese of Palencia was but a name— a "titular see"— until Froila, Count of Villafruela, succeeded in retaking the area of the see in 921, but the true restorer of Christian power was Sancho I of Aragon. At Palencia El Cid married his Ximena in 1074.
Palencia contains a few sights. The Roman bridge across the Carrion was replaced by the medieval one of three arches: the old section of the city is on the left bank, the modern suburban development on the right bank. The old city walls more than 10 meters high can still be traced; the alamedas or promenades along them were laid out in 1778. The flamboyant Gothic Cathedral built from 1321 to 1504, dedicated to San Antolín, stands over a low vaulted Visigothic crypt and its museum contains a number of important works of art, including a retablo of twelve panels by Juan de Flandes, court painter to Queen Isabella of Castile. The Archeological Museum contains Celtiberian ceramics. Palencia is also famous for the 13th-century church of San Miguel and the Benedictine monastery of San Zoilo, housed in an 18th-century rococo structure by Juan de Badajoz.
Under Rome. The fortified Celtiberian settlement, the chief town of the Vaccaei, was rendered as Pallantia by Strabo and Ptolemy and the Romans, a version possibly of the Celtic root pala, "plain". The city was starved into submission in the 2nd century BCE. The little Roman garrison city was insignificant compared to the Roman villas of Late Antiquity. Archeologists have uncovered the remains of Roman villas at "La Olmeda" and at the "Quintanilla de la Cueza," where the fragments of mosaic floors are spectacularly refined. According to the 5th-century Galician chronicler Idatius, the city of Palencia was all but destroyed (457) in the Visigothic wars against the Suevi: the date falls in the reign of Theodoric II, whose power center still lay far to the east, in Aquitania. When the Visigoths conquered the territory, however, they retained the rural villa system in establishing the Campos Góticos.
Under the Bishops. In the city itself, a Catholic bishopric of Palencia had been founded in the 3rd century or earlier (Flórez, España Sagrada, vol. viii), if its bishop was among those assembled in the 3rd century to depose Basilides, bishop of Astorga. With the arrival of effective Visigothic power, official Arians and opposition Catholics disputed the bishopric of Palencia. Priscillian's ascetic heresy, which originated in Galicia, spread over the Tierra de Campos ruled by the Arian Visigoths, and was opposed by Toribius, Bishop of Astorga. Maurila, an Arian bishop established in Palencia by Leovigild, followed King Reccared's conversion to Catholicism (587), and in 589 he assisted at the Third Council of Toledo. Bishop Conantius, the biographer of Saint Ildephonsus, assisted at synods and councils in Toledo and composed music and a book of prayers from the Psalms; he ruled the see for more than thirty years, and had for pupil Fructuosus of Braga.
Under the Moors. When the Moors arrived in the early 8th century, resistance was fragmented among bishops in control of the small walled towns, and the territorial magnates in their fortified villas. A concerted resistance seems to have been ineffective, and the fragmented system crumbled villa by villa. Palencia was insignificant: Moorish writers only once cite the border city in the division of the provinces previous to the Ummayyad dynasty. The diocese of Palencia was but a name— a "titular see"— until Froila, Count of Villafruela, succeeded in retaking the area of the see in 921, but the true restorer of Christian power was Sancho I of Aragon. At Palencia El Cid married his Ximena in 1074.
Chapi