The invention of the origins of christianity in Berja and Adra during the modern age

Abstract

During the Modern Era, some population centers of the former Kingdom of Granada claimed a legendary history of the origins of Christianity. These discourses were based on medieval stories and traditions that spoke of the arrival of the Apostolic Holy Men and even the Apostle James to Hispania, as well as fraudulent discoveries such as those of Sacromonte. The towns of Berja and Adra offer a paradigmatic example of this phenomenon, as tradition linked them to events like the founding of an episcopal see or the landing and passage of the evangelizers. The development of this phenomenon in both towns cannot be understood without considering the complex context in which it arose, strongly marked by the need for social cohesion, the desire for prestige, rivalry between dioceses, the Tridentine postulates, and the admiration for the archaeological vestiges of their past, which were used to legitimize such discourses.