La Vera Cruz (Segovia)
The La Vera Cruz Church in Segovia is located north of the Alcázar of the Spanish city of Segovia.
It has a twelve-sided floor plan and was founded on April 13, 1208, according to the dedication attached in 1312. The Order of the Knights Templar is often mentioned as the founder, but it was probably the Castilian Order of the Holy Sepulcher ( Spanish del Santo Sepulcro ), which owned the church in 1229, according to a document.
The church is a central building and is said to have been built to house a relic of the "true cross" ( Spanish Vera Cruz ). Other sources suggest that La Vera Cruz with its integrated tomb ädikula was probably built as a burial church for a person of the Spanish nobility .
The middle part (above)
The outside also twelve-sided central part of the nave rotunda is two-story. Access to the upper level, the Lignum Crucis chapel (wood from the cross) is via a surrounding stone staircase. The four large openings to the rest of the ship give the interior, round floor, optically a cross shape.
The rest of the ship and choir
The high, ground-level, polygonal outside and inside part of the ship is essentially arranged in a ring around the central wing, which is kept low in the lower part. It has large open arcades that lead to the three apses of the choir and the west portal . The central apse is significantly larger than the outer one. Another, attached apsidal side chapel is no longer available.
The portals and the tower
The main entrance is in the west. The south entrance is next to the bell tower attached to the outside, the upper part of which has been restored.
inventory
A fragment of a painting from the 13th century shows a man wearing a round shield with the Templar cross. It is located near the south door. Frescoes and an altar stone from the 15th century can be found in the Lignum Crucis chapel. Remains of frescoes from the 16th century can be found in one of the two side apses.
La Vera Cruz church appears to have been abandoned in the 17th century and fell into disrepair after the abolition of monastic orders in Spain in 1835. In 1951 it was restored and rededicated.
literature
- Roger Collins: An Oxford Archaeological Guide - Spain . Oxford / New York 1998, p. 257
- Stefanie Dathe: La Vera Cruz in Segovia. Dialectical investigation into the origin, building history and function of a Romanesque central building in Old Castile . VDG, Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-89739-206-2 , (also: Zurich, Univ., Diss., 1999).
Individual evidence
- ^ Stefanie Dathe: La Vera Cruz in Segovia. Dialectical investigation into the origin, building history and function of a Romanesque central building in Old Castile . VDG, Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-89739-206-2 , (also: Zurich, Univ., Diss., 1999).
Web links
Coordinates: 40 ° 57 '20.6 " N , 4 ° 7' 56.2" W.