Paisaje celeste y arqueoastronom\'ia: las iglesias hist\'oricas como indicadores de la planimetr\'ia de una ciudad ideal

TL;DR

This paper investigates the geometric and archaeoastronomical aspects of San Cristobal de La Laguna's urban design, analyzing church orientations to understand the city's planned layout and historical development.

Contribution

It introduces a novel archaeoastronomical approach to interpret the spatial distribution and orientation of historical churches in La Laguna, linking urban planning with cultural and religious factors.

Findings

Church orientations reflect the city's geometric plan

Archaeoastronomical analysis offers new insights into urban layout

Historical religious constructions align with cultural symbolism

Abstract

According to popular tradition, the Canarian city of San Cristobal de La Laguna, a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1999, emerged in the early sixteenth century with a novel organization, in line with a new peaceful social order inspired by the religious doctrine of the millennium and its expression through urban design [...] In this paper we briefly discuss some details of these ideas, which propose a planned geometric origin for the city, and the original sources on which they are based. We then look for other indications that in a simpler way might explain some of the notable characteristics of the order and design of La Laguna, where over time a model of traditional Canarian architecture was installed that, during the 17th century, was populated with civil and religious constructions (churches, chapels and convents) with notable creations in carpentry of Mudejar origin, for example coming from the lower Andalusia. To conclude, we show our precise analysis of the orientation of almost all the historical churches and chapels of the city, taken together as an indicator of its planimetry. This study employs the usual tools of archaeoastronomy as a complement to the historical and cultural research of religious constructions. We will see then that a new -- and simpler -- interpretation of the spatial distribution of the city is possible.