Evidence of Churches Aligned to the Sun on the Patron Saint's Day in Southern Spain after the Twelfth Century.

This work studies the alignment of churches in southern Spain after the twelfth century. It merges a statistical analysis from a wide survey with a case study at the town of Bujalance, where the alignment of the parish Churches of Our Lady of the Assumption and of St Francis of Assisi (both from the early sixteenth century) accurately orient to the sunrise and sunset on the respective feast days. A systematic survey covering an area which roughly maps onto the Muslim domain in the mid-twelfth century included all the parish churches with the same two dedications (N = 168 and 72, respectively), and the measurement of their alignments allows an estimation of the continuous distribution of normalised frequency for each dedication. They show a major peak around the azimuths linked to the sunrise (Assumption) or sunset (St Francis) in their respective patronal festivals, as demonstrated by a detailed study of these churches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]