Dos fortalezas fronterizas entre los reinos de Castilla y Granada en las Cantigas de Santa María de Alfonso X El Sabio (último tercio del siglo XIII)

Abstract

[EN] Cantigas de Santa Maria (‘Canticles of Holy Mary’) consists of 420 poems with musical notation written during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile (r. 1251-1284). Two of the codices preserved are richly illuminated with medieval narrative vignettes.Canticle number 185 depicts a ploy of war between the Castilian and Nasrid commanders of two mythical fortresses in the valley of the river Jandulilla, next to Sierra Mágina in south-eastern Spain, in the present-day province of Jaén. The location of the first of them, Chincoya, has generated a debate in the last decades given its early destruction and abandonment. At the second one, Bélmez, many structures have survived, since an imposing keep was built on top of its fortress when it first fell into Castilian hands in the first half of the 14th century.Over the centuries, this valley has been an important pass connecting the upper valley of the river Guadalquivir with the northern highlands of Granada. In the 13th century, this natural route was reinforced with fortifications that would later become key elements in the control of the border between the Christian kingdom of Castile and the Muslim state of Granada.This area formed part of the land that Ferdinand III of Castile had promised to deliver to Baeza in 1243 when it was conquered. The Treaty of Jaén in 1246 between the Christian king and the first ruler of the Nasrid dynasty, Muḥammad I, left some of these castles on Muslim territory, converting them into border posts in the face of the southern expansion of the Castilian kingdom after the Battle of Navas de Tolosa (1212).This paper analyses the configuration of the fortresses of Chincoya and Bélmez on the basis of the preserved remains, contrasting it with the iconography that illuminated the Códice Rico de las Cantigas de Alfonso X El Sabio (codex T, Library of El Escorial, MS T.I.1).