The Cycle of Medieval Cathedrals – Explaining the Construction of Iberian Cathedrals through Economic Development

Abstract

Iberian cathedrals are some of the most impressive religious buildings in Europe. Mostly erected between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, they are also the outcome of regional phases of growth and development. This article discusses this period favourable to the building of religious structures in the Iberian Peninsula, considering local dynamism, the religiosity of adherents and stimuli from the economic development of the surrounding areas. Using models of spatial autocorrelation, we observed different results for the Portuguese dioceses and for the Spanish ones. Spanish dioceses, in particular, exerted competitive effects on surrounding dioceses, making the erection of new cathedrals close to a diocese with an old or a valued cathedral less probable. It was also observed that the dynamism of cathedral construction in a given diocese tended to be replicated in the closest dioceses between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries.