  We use standard tools of Archaeoastronomy to approach the study of
orientations, possibly astronomical, of a group of colonial Christian churches.
We present preliminary results of the analysis of the precise spatial
orientation of nearly fifty chapels and churches of the Canary Island of
Fuerteventura (Spain), most of them built from the period of the Norman
conquest in the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century. Although some
small chapels belonging to the manorial power of the island and other modern
churches do not have a well-defined pattern of orientations, the vast majority
of the religious constructions of the island (about 35 of the 48 analyzed) have
their axis oriented within the solar range, between the extreme azimuths of the
annual movement of the Sun when crossing the local horizon. Unlike what was
found in other islands of the archipelago, these results suggest that the
religious architecture of Fuerteventura faithfully follows the prescriptions
contained in the texts of early Christian writers.
