‘Christianization’, as it features in the central argument of this book, does not seek to purport any religious claim: it is a paradigm, a thread that will guide us through a deep social, economic, and political transformation that decisively affected the four centuries from the misnamed Edict of Milan to the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by Umayyad armies. This paradigm is embodied in the archaeological record in a number of different ways, although undoubtedly the one studied here, that is to say the ‘architecture of power’, is the most significant, enabling a better overview of the subject. This includes all the non-domestic architecture that served as a vehicle for the expression of power of the civil, military, and religious elites of western Baetica during Late Antiquity. As already mentioned, the absence of documents in this region means archaeology is our main source of reliable information. Therefore, we think the best way to approach the knowledge of Late Antiquity in western Baetica is, without doubt, through the paradigm of an architecture of power related mainly to the new religion, which changed towns and rural areas radically.

Through the study of this architecture we can see how local aristocracies evolved, how they projected an image of themselves in the society they controlled, how they adapted to the changes experienced in the Roman state, and ultimately how they responded to the effective disappearance of the Empire. In the development and evolution of architecture itself, as well as in the spaces it occupied, we will see how these elites adapted to the formation of new political and economic orders. Furthermore, the planning and implementation of religious architecture in cities and rural areas makes it clear that its location transcends purely religious motives. The churches were built in symbolic, strategic places, near mines or controlling a road or a port. In fact, in order to explore further the introduction of Christianity and the architecture that mirrored it, we find it convenient to sum up in this chapter those places where we believe there was a church. Thanks to certain elements of architectural decoration (such as the remains of altars) or epigraphy (foundation inscriptions), we are able to know the location of these churches.