PLA DE NADAL EL PALACIO DE TEVDINIR

The Pla de Nadal was an exceptional palatine building, situated in Ribaroja de Turia, near Valencia. It was built between the end of the 7th century or with more probability in the beginning of the 8th century. It was excavated between 1981 and 1989 by the Museo de Prehistoria of Valencia with the direction of Empar Juan. This palace was accidentally discovered by works in the fields of this area. This agricultural activity destroyed more than the half of the building. The main facade and the whole southern part is the only area that has been preserved. The palace was a monumental building with two towers on the façade, a central courtyard, and a luxurious top floor of aristocratic and representative character. The ground floor was of utilitarian function. We can highlight its extraordinarily rich architectural decoration from the collapsed upper floor.The walls are nearly a meter thick and they have been kept in a height of 2.35 meters, with the windows. The walls have not foundations, and they supported on the solid natural soil, which was also the paving of the lower floor. The most of the walls are of masonry with the surface plastered. The architectural decoration highlights, because it constitute the most important collection, both by the number and the quality of its size, of the Visigoth Kingdom and one of the most significant of the entire Western world. They present a great functional and typological diversity, and a very specific iconography. We could speak too about the very interesting signs of the work of sculptural workshops techniques. Moreover, by the circumstances of its discovery, these sculptural pieces were found in situ in the levels of destruction of the building.There are almost 800 pieces, which we could divide into two groups. On the one hand, the reused Roman stones of good quality and large size, which are the least. They had mainly architectural and structural function. On the other hand, the numerous sculptures who were worked directly on-the site for several hands or workshops, that developed the iconographic program of the building. About 400 of them, more than half, are ornamental and decorative, and they would be in the main room on the upper floor. The sustentation elements are also very numerous: capitals, columns and bases, some of them without authentic architectural feature, because of in the most of them prevailed the decorative function. We can see a constant repetition of the themes of scallops and the trifolias in the inner parts of the arches. There are some unique pieces, such as openwork crosses, the rosettes and the merlons. The architecture of this building has a very clear Eastern influence of the Byzantine world.Pla de Nadal is an exceptional ensemble of Palatine character in the territory of Valentia, which was the B.l.nt.la of the Arabic texts of the Theodemir Pact. Their architecture responds to the model of the Late Antiquity villae with Gallery and corner towers on the flanks, and a central peristyle. The compact ensemble with angular towers has the aspect of a Palace-fortress.By archaeological and Epigraphic documents, we can link this building to Theodomir, the dux of this territory in the dawn of the Visigoth Kingdom and the beginnings of the Arab domination. Theodomir would represent the rise of the nobility in the front of the Royal power, at the same time that the historical sources reflect the failure of centralization and a State strong Visigoth. These duces provincial focused civil and military power in his hands. This early proto-feudal aristocracy would use a model house with porches, open areas of representation and copious use of the architectural decoration.The building was used little time, less than a century. A great fire provoked the collapse and the destruction, which was been preceded by the total looting of furniture elements. By a lot of studies about his historical, archaeological and architectural modulation, we can propose a new interpretation of the ensemble. There was another nearby building, Plan de Nadal II, which had been destroyed by the construction of a motorway.