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1882
Volume 3, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2295-3493
  • E-ISSN: 2507-0363

Abstract

Abstract

The excavations at the Dome Square of Utrecht between 2011-2014 have brought spectacular results, which, however, have not been unambiguously interpreted. In this article it is argued that the strong building which pierces through all layers of the Roman castellum to the bare ground, must be classified as the coinage workshop of King Dagobert, where Madelinus and colleagues minted coins from 625 until 635 with the inscription TRIECTO FIT, a designation usually linked with Maastricht. The small church that King Dagobert also founded, and which Willibrord later on found in ruin, must have been the ecclesiastical stronghold that - together with the minting workshop as a secular stronghold - was the governmental seat at the northern frontier of the empire that this Merovingian king established against the heathen Frisians, enemies of the Christian Franks. However, the Frisians turned out to be so strong that the seat needed to be moved to the fortress Dorestat, upstream at the bifurcation of the rivers Rhine and Leck. It is not clear which Roman castellum had got the vernacular name Dorestat at that time, but it is argued that it was not Levefanum but Mannaricium, near Maurik. There Madelinus continued his minting activity till 650 and King Dagobert founded his Upkirica or Upperchurch, dedicated to Saint Martin. This being a daughter of the church at the current Utrecht Dome Square, the conclusion is that the mother church also was dedicated to Saint Martin from the beginning. It was located on the spot of the south transept of the later Holy Cross Chapel, not under the later Dome of bishop Adelbold and successors. Another conclusion concerns the development of Dorestat as a trade centre, which reached its summit only after 780, more than a century after Madelinus had stopped his activities. The coins of Madelinus served diplomatic goals, not economic ones. In his time Dorestat did not have any economic importance yet.

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2016-01-01
2025-12-07

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  • Article Type: Research Article

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