El paisaje urbano de Toledo en la antigüedad tardía

This paper will assess the urban reality of Toletum within the overall process of transformation which is manifest in Hispanic cities, as well as other cities in the western Mediterranean during Late Antiquity. The urban landscape of Toletum inherited from the classical period had undergone major modifications, given that there had been fundamental changes in the reorganisation and concept of the ancient suburbium with regard to its buildings and function. Christianity, being a long-lasting phenomenon, was one of the most decisive elements in the transformation of society and, hence, the urban landscape during the 4th to 5th centuries. A few centuries later, the consolidation of the Visigothic capital had also particular consequences in the spatial planning and structurisation of new public and representational spaces as well as private space. Episcopal and royal evergetism contributed to the development of a new monumental architecture that defined a particular late Antique topography of urban and suburban landscape in which civil palatial architecture was combined with an urban liturgy and the so-called sacred itinerary by which the Christian city was defined.