“Places of Power: Urban Landscapes and Royal Residences in Medieval Iberia”
Rita Costa Gomes

In this paper I present some results of comparative research on the royal residences in the five kingdoms of late medieval Iberia – Portugal, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Granada – for the period between 1250 and 1450.  I approach the subject of royal residences from the point of view of urban history, discussing the influence of the building of palaces in the configuration of cities.  The discussion also involves architectural history, aiming at a better formal definition of medieval royal palaces, and leads to the history of medieval landscapes.  In medieval cities of Iberia, the royal residence plays a major role in fashioning urban landscapes, especially after the Reconquest.  As cities were growing, the number of palaces multiplied, and the first attempts at urbanism brought new solutions to the location and the magnificence of royal residences.  Four typologies of residences are discussed in this paper: the Qasr or royal castle, the residence associated to the marketplace or the gates of the city (rossio, plaza mayor), the residence in convents or monasteries, and the suburban residence.  My purpose is to identify common processes of transformation of these residences and mutual influences among Iberian kingdoms.  I also present and discuss an early global cartography of Iberian residences derived from the study of royal itineraries.