São Pedro (Lourosa, Oliveira do Hospital)
The São Pedro Church (also: Igreja Matriz de Lourosa , or: Igreja Moçárabe de São Pedro de Lourosa called) is located in the Portuguese municipality of Lourosa , about seven kilometers southwest of the city of Oliveira do Hospital . It is of art historical importance as one of the oldest churches and the only proven Mozarabic building in Portugal.
The square building is located on the western edge of the historical location and is 25.5 m long. Beyond a large central vestibule in the west is a three-aisled columned arcade basilica with a pseudo transept (false transept ). Three adjacent rooms are accessible from here in the east. Only the chancel in the middle is part of the original concept. In front of the pseudo transept there was once a transverse barrier in the central nave, which ensured the strict separation of the choir .
At the west end of the north aisle, there is a basin of unexplained function in the floor, which is located directly behind an entrance door. An inlet leads from the doorstep to the basin, while the drain leads into the interior of the church. A baptismal font would certainly have been clad with smooth stone slabs. Above all, the lack of a spatial separation from the lay room speaks against a baptistery. A piscina embedded in the floor would indicate adult baptism, which, unlike the later infant baptism in the basin on a high stand, was carried out in a separate room. Another explanation is the existence of the small basin before the church was built. It would have been taken into account when they were built, if it belonged to an old, venerated sanctuary. Examples of respect for pagan cult marks in churches - often sources - appear up to Romanticism and later.
Spoli columns with Tuscan capitals support the horseshoe arches between the naves. They give the almost unadorned monument its character and assign it to the early Middle Ages . The restrained pronouncement and the cuboid technique seem to belong to the Visigoth period. However , according to the Spanish era, an architectural inscription in the vestibule reads : era DCCCCL (results in 912 AD) At that time, Lourosa was in the border area between the Islamic emirate of Córdoba and the Kingdom of Asturias , which had taken Coimbra in 878 . The ashlar construction did not generally go out of use after the Visigothic period , but was able to persist in the Asturian region as evidenced by a few examples. A block transformed from a Roman altar into a Christian altar pillar bears the angel's cross created in the 9th century as an Asturian emblem .
In the west gable, the more heavily coated horseshoe appears as an arch shape , in a characteristic doubling with a rectangular frame called Alfiz . This shows the influence of Islamic art, which found its aesthetic climax in the Mozarabic churches in northern Spain in the first half of the 10th century . The horseshoe arch attributed to the Moors already appears in Visigoth architecture. It was accepted by the Moors and came to the north with the Mozarabs in an orientalized form, while the Visigothic form of the horseshoe arch survived in the pre-Romanesque architecture of Asturias . This historical situation reflects the Igreja de São Pedro de Lourosa.
Main portal of São Pedro de Lourosa
Mozarabic Window ( ajimez )
Horseshoe arches
Exterior view
Column and capital
literature
- 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. 100
- Sabine Noack-Haley: The origin of the church São Pedro de Lourosa (Beira Alta) - a mystery of early medieval research . In: Hermanfrid Schubart et al. (Ed.): Finds in Portugal. Muster-Schmidt, Göttingen / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7881-1512-2 , pp. 197-215
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ S. Noack-Haley in Finds in Portugal. P. 208.
Coordinates: 40 ° 19 '2.9 " N , 7 ° 55' 54.7" W.