San Miguel (San Esteban de Gormaz)
The Church of San Miguel in the village of San Esteban de Gormaz in the province of Soria is one of the earliest Romanesque buildings in Castile , along with the Church of San Salvador in Sepúlveda , but above all one of the earliest churches with a porch ( portico or galería porticada) .
history
The Romans built a fort nearby; there are no archaeologically usable traces of the Visigoths . The advance of Islam led to the depopulation of large areas between the Duero rivers in the north and the Tagus rivers in the south, which could only be balanced out again after the reconquest ( reconquista ) through population policy efforts ( repoblación ) in the 10th and 11th centuries. After Almansor's repeated, but not permanent, advances towards the end of the 10th century, it became clear that Islam was no longer able to hold or retake northern Spain, and so the building of churches began. One of the earliest (preserved) buildings is the church of San Miguel in San Esteban de Gormaz, which most researchers attribute to the late 11th or early 12th century.
architecture
lobby
The church, built mostly of quarry stone, stands elevated on a rock in the center of the village; it is only accessible via a staircase. This leads to the south portal of a symmetrically laid out vestibule made of precisely hewn stone with additional portal entrances to the east and west. Above all, the not very elegant looking powerful columns, which are still supported by pillars inside the portal entrance, give rise to an early date. The capitals are in poor condition; The console figures with small scenes from the lives of monks and other people have survived somewhat better . Above a figure of a reading monk is a date carved into it, which is interpreted by some as "1081", but by others as "1111".
church
The portal of the church consists of several archivolt bulges , which are otherwise unadorned. The only nave of the church, built from roughly hewn stones, is not vaulted, but covered with a wooden roof truss; above the vestibule, the room is only slightly lit by two small windows. A large choir arch , which rests on two Romanesque capitals, opens the space to the slightly elevated apse with a finely crafted dome made of precisely hewn stones. The interior of the church has been converted into a small museum and houses among other things. a. a late Romanesque wooden statue of Our Lady and a medieval baptismal font .
tower
The tower, built on a square ground plan, consists of precisely hewn stones in its lower part; the upper part - made of bricks - closes seamlessly, d. H. without an intermediate cornice . At the very top the bells are hung in wide sound openings. In the east side of the tower there is a window, the individual forms of which are clearly more developed than those of the apse window.
San Miguel Church
San Miguel Church - apse and tower
Church portal
Reading monk
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literature
- José Luis Hernando Garrido: Enciclopedia del Románico en Castilla y León. Volume II Soria, Fundación Santa María la Real , Aguilar de Campoo 2002, pp. 867-875
Web links
- Church of San Miguel - photos, floor plan + information (Spanish)
- Church of San Miguel - Photos + Info (Spanish)
- Church of San Miguel u. a. - Photos + information (Spanish)
- Catalog of churches with vestibules (Spanish)
Coordinates: 41 ° 34 ′ 30 " N , 3 ° 12 ′ 20" W.