Archaeoastronomy and the orientation of old churches

TL;DR

This paper investigates the orientations of old Christian churches across different regions to understand their astronomical and cultural significance, revealing patterns aligned with solar positions and historical practices.

Contribution

It provides new empirical data on church orientations from diverse regions and analyzes their cultural and historical context in archaeoastronomy.

Findings

Many churches are oriented towards the east, aligning with solar positions.

Orientation patterns reflect historical and cultural influences.

Data supports the idea of shared astronomical practices in early Christian architecture.

Abstract

Cultural astronomy is an interdisciplinary area of research that studies how perceptions and concepts related to the sky are part of the worldview of a culture. One of its branches, archaeoastronomy, focuses on the material remains of past peoples and tries to investigate their practices and astronomical knowledge. In this context, the orientation of Christian churches is now considered a distinctive feature of their architecture that repeats patterns from early Christian times. There is a general tendency to align their altars in the solar range, with preference for orientations towards the east. Here we present recent data from our measurements of astronomical orientations of old churches located in two --geographically and culturally-- very distant regions, and we discuss the results in the light of the historical and cultural knowledge surrounding these temples.