Sao Frutuoso de Montélios
São Frutuoso de Montélios is a relatively small (around 14 × 14 m) Visigothic sacred building from the 7th century AD, which can only be entered through the São Francisco Church (18th century). The ensemble is located in the Real suburb of the city of Braga in Portugal .
history
The late West Gothic church is named after St. Fructuosus , who settled in Dume , north of Braga , around 653 AD . Until his death in 665 he was the successor of Saint Martin Abbot Bishop of the local monastery and from 656 at the same time metropolitan of the Braga district.
The church is his mausoleum . Fructuosus biography shows him as the founder of another convent (besides Dume) where he was buried. In the 9th century, the monastery he founded was expressly assigned the Salvator patronage and the toponym Montélios. Another indication is the small, dark building, unsuitable for church services, with a floor plan popular for memorial buildings. It consists of a cross with three windowless arms of equal length, straight on the outside and apsidal inside . In the middle of the outer wall of the east arm is the arched burial niche in which Fructuosus must have found his final resting place, as burials inside the church were forbidden at that time. The whole is accessed from a rectangular anteroom.
The building belongs to a group of the outstanding Ibero-Visigothic cuboid architectures, a construction method typical of Visigoths but only used on the Iberian Peninsula, in this case apparently with quarry stone infill . Architecturally, it occupies a leading position together with three churches in northern Spain , although from 1931 it was subject to perhaps too extensive restoration. The relationship between the monument and the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna , a brick building from the 5th century, is clear. However, there are major differences in terms of interior design and material.
The facades are visually enlivened by raised strips of pilaster strips and narrow friezes all around . The roof and gable cornices as well as a frieze of pointed and horseshoe blind arches at the crossing also set accents .
This exclusivity is even more pronounced inside. In all the arms of the cross there were rows of columns around the outside or separately that supported small secondary vaults. Four arcades , each with two columns and three horseshoe arches, form the front of the arms and the vestibule and separate the domed central square. Some of these supports are ancient spolia .
literature
- Anja Eckermann (Ed.): "Ars Iberica et Americana". Volume 19, In the Intersection of Cultures, In: Ines Käflein, Jochen Staebel, Matthias Untermann (Eds.): Sâo Fructuoso de Montélios- Substance from the construction period and modern reconstruction, p. 391-413 Verlag Vervuert / Iberoamericana, Madrid 2016. ISBN 978- 84-8489-871-9 ,
- Thomas G. Schattner (Ed.): Archaeological guide through Portugal (= cultural history of the ancient world . Vol. 74). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2313-1 , p. 65.
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 33 ′ 37.3 " N , 8 ° 26 ′ 19.5" W.