Sant Vicenç (Cardona)
Sant Vicenç de Cardona is a former Romanesque collegiate monastery in the city of Cardona in the comarca of Bages in the province of Barcelona . Even before the churches of Sant Cugat del Racó , Sant Jaume de Frontanyà , Sant Pere de Rodes and Sant Ponç de Corbera , it is one of the oldest and most impressive buildings of early Romanesque architecture in northern Catalonia . Marcel Durliat calls it “the most important building of the 'Premier art roman méridional' in Catalonia” (p. 542).
history
The fortress hill ( Castell de Cardona ) was already settled in Iberian and Roman times, as there were salt deposits nearby ; it probably never fell into Islamic hands, or only briefly. In 798, Louis the Pious , the son of Charlemagne , ordered the capture of the Castrum Cardonam in order to secure the Spanish Mark against possible attacks by Islam, which was also successful because the fortress hill was never taken. In the 9th and 10th centuries Cardona was under the control of the County of Osona , from which it soon passed into the hands of the Vice Counts of Cardona, who later became the House of Folch de Cardona .
The construction of the former monastery church possibly goes back to Bermón , the then Vice-Count of Cardona - the time of origin is dated to the years 1020-1040 (documented consecration date 23 October 1040), but the construction activity stopped in the meantime, as clearly on some stone layers above the Scheidarkade can be recognized. This interruption in construction is dated to the year 1040, when the founder died, so that when the church was consecrated the building was probably not quite finished. In 1592 the monastery was closed; after that the building served as a parish church. From 1794 the building was used as a barracks and storage room. In 1964 it was one of the main locations for Orson Welles ' Shakespeare adaptation Falstaff and served as the setting for the castles of Henry IV and Henry Percy and as the cathedral in which Henry V is crowned. In 2016, Sant Vicenç was therefore included in the list of treasures of European film culture .
architecture
Stone material
The stones used in the construction are trimmed almost exactly, so that they in layers and in the association could be walled up. The pillars of the nave and the vaults are also bricked.
Exterior construction
The basilically laid out church consists of a nave and a transept , to which three apses adjoin to the east . The entire structure - with the exception of the octagonal and windowed crossing tower ( cimbori ) - is in the traditions of the Lombard style - structured by pilaster strips that end in round arch friezes below the eaves . The three apses also have small blind windows within the round arches. The two parallel portals of the church are each stepped back a little at the sides, but otherwise unadorned.
Interior
The church, which is around 50 meters long, has a low vestibule ( atrio ), which was painted with frescoes in the 12th century , which is usually found as a narthex in larger church buildings in Burgundy ; above it is a so-called grandstand . The actual church interior has three aisles, with the side aisles being extremely narrow and serving more to stabilize the three-bay, about 6.5 meters wide and 18.80 meters high central nave. This is barrel-vaulted and subjected to belt arches, whereas the aisles are groin vaulted . In the north aisle, a section of the medieval floor was exposed during the restoration work, which is laid almost like a pavement. The four corner spandrels of the crossing dome are underlaid by trumpets and illuminated through eight simple window openings. While the side apses adjoin the respective side aisles at the same height, the central apse, which is extended by a fore choir yoke, is raised by a good meter and can only be reached via two eight-step staircases. Opposite the side apses, it is highlighted by a tall, slender niche. These blind niches in the interior are ultimately of ancient origin and were conveyed to other parts of Europe by Italian buildings or master builders.
crypt
Under the central apse there is a three-aisled but four-bay crypt with groin vaults , the supporting monolithic columns of which may come from an ancient building and were reused here as spolia . The capitals and spars are adorned and look blocky. The crypt was originally lit through three small, previously unglazed windows in the rear wall; otherwise you probably worked with candles or torches.
Importance of the church for the development of vaulted buildings
In the second half of the 11th century, vault construction spread across large parts of Europe. The beginnings seem to be in Burgundy and here in northern Spain. While the vaulting of the Abbey Church of Cluny II (954–981) is controversial among architectural historians, the narthex of Saint-Philibert in Tournus is the earliest in Burgundy that is still vaulted in all parts. Before the turn of the millennium, there were vaults only in smaller systems; only now - at the beginning of the 11th century - did the medieval builders dare to vault all parts ( side aisles , central nave, transept and choir ) of a larger church as well.
Here in Cardona you can study the requirements that were necessary for the development of larger vaults. First, the window openings and the links of the support system had to be coordinated with one another in their axes. This was the only way to break through the wall, which enabled both sufficient exposure and the construction of supporting elements for the new continuous stone vault ( belt arches ).
As a result, the space was increasingly rhythmicized by supporting architectural elements at the same distance. The services and the templates were placed on the walls in a new way (“tight vertical tracks”). A development begins that leads to the pillar no longer being part of the wall, but being isolated, which in the Gothic style will increase to become the basic construction principle. The pillars between the central and side aisles here in Cardona demonstrate the first clear step in this direction. They are made up of a core (remnants of the wall) and stepped templates on all four sides, which go up to the vaults of the central and side aisles as well as beams to the neighboring pillar. With a diameter of 2.5 meters they still look very massive.
Unusual and characteristic of the experimental early stage of this church is the relationship between the vaulted yokes of the naves. There are three vaulted bays in the side aisles on just one central bay. "Extreme contrasts, compactness and slim climbing are united here, the Romanesque architecture has found its valid form."
Reinforcements in the form of niches were added on the outside to absorb the vault pressure. The dome of the separated crossing rests on four trumpets , which are still low and clumsy with a few narrow openings.
literature
- Vicenç Buron: Esglésies Romàniques Catalanes. Artestudi Edicions, Barcelona 1977, p. 84, ISBN 84-85180-06-2 .
- Fritz René Allemann and Xenia v. Bahder: Catalonia and Andorra . Cologne [1980] 4th edition 1986. (DuMont Art Travel Guide), p. 227, Fig. 90–92.
- Xavier Barral I Altet (ed.): The history of Spanish art . Cologne 1997, pp. 90-92.
- Raymond Oursel and Henri Stierlin (eds.): Romanik (= Architektur der Welt, Vol. 15), pp. 164–168.
Web links
- Sant Vincenç de Cardona - floor plan, sections, photos + information (catalan)
- Sant Vincenç de Cardona - Photos + Info (Spanish)
Individual evidence
- ^ Durliat, Marcel: Romanesque art. Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1983, p. 543.
- ↑ European Film Academy : Treasures of European Film Culture (accessed on September 22, 2016)
- ↑ Toman, Rolf (ed.): The art of Romanesque. Architecture - sculpture - painting. Cologne 1996, p. 184.
- ^ A b Adam, Ernst: Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque. Frankfurt 1968, p. 76.
Coordinates: 41 ° 54 ′ 52 " N , 1 ° 41 ′ 9" E