Sant Cugat del Racó

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Church of Sant Cugat del Racó

The St. Cucupha's consecrated church of Sant Cugat del Racó is - alongside the churches of Sant Vicenç de Cardona , Sant Jaume de Frontanyà , Sant Pere de Rodes , Sant Cugat del Vallès and Sant Ponç de Corbera  - one of the oldest and most impressive buildings of Romanesque architecture in northern Catalonia .

location

The church Sant Cugat del Racó is located in the municipality ( Municipi ) of Navàs in only about 25 inhabitants hamlet of the same name in the north of the province of Barcelona in the autonomous region of Catalonia . It is located about five kilometers west of the upper reaches of the Riu Llobregat at an altitude of almost 500 meters above sea level. d. M. The nearest major city, Manresa , is about 25 kilometers south.

history

Church of Sant Cugat del Racó

During excavations, the remains of a pre-Romanesque building were found in the area of ​​the apse , but nothing is known about the details of the building history or the person or people who commissioned the current church. The construction of the church, usually dated to the first half of the 11th century, impresses with its height dimensions and the three-apse - aspects that make it seem almost impossible that it could originally have been a simple village church. A collegiate church or a priory church is more likely to be thought of, but there are no further references in this regard. Older names are Sant Cugat de Castelladral (1040) or Sant Cugat de l'Alou (1293), which suggests a reference to the monastery of Ripoll ; the current name appears for the first time in 1689. The combination of pilaster strips and arched friezes , which was common in Catalan churches after the year 1000 , is always associated in research with Lombard forms or even architects or stonemasons (see Abbot Oliba ).

architecture

Transept and apses
Crossing and transept arms

The floor plan of the church roughly reproduces a Greek cross with four legs of the same size. The entire building is essentially made of roughly hewn rubble stones; Only on the corner stones , pilaster strips and on the later added bell gable ( espadanya ) is there more precisely carved stone material.

Exterior construction

The outer walls of the apses , the transept , the nave and the west facade are structured by pilaster strips, which develop below the eaves or the gable into an almost all-round arched frieze. The square crossing area is elevated by a circular drum-like , but not exposed, top ( cimbori ) that is unique in Catalonia and is surrounded by a circumferential dwarf gallery . The southern apse was demolished in the 17th century and replaced by a sacristy .

portal

The current arched portal on the south side of the church was added later; Above the apex of the arch it bears the engraved date 1599.

Interior

The short, barrel-vaulted nave has a single nave and is roughly the same width (approx. 3.20 meters) as the central apse; the smaller lateral apses are attached to the east of the two transept arms, which are one step higher than the nave. The three apses form a triumphal arch scheme . The nave and the two transept arms are only sparsely lit through narrow, high-lying and originally not glazed window openings; they are barrel vaulted (apex height approx. 7.50 meters). The crossing, on the other hand, is covered by a trumpet-supported dome and the apses show the usual semi- dome- shaped dome vaults .

Furnishing

It is assumed that the altar panel (width approx. 1.50 meters, height approx. 20 centimeters) resting on four column drums with diamond decoration and a stepped base originates from the previous building, of which two capitals can be seen in the Museu Comarcal de Manresa .

See also

literature

  • Vicenç Buron: Esglésies Romàniques Catalanes. Artestudi Edicions, Barcelona 1977, pp. 88f, ISBN 84-85180-06-2 .

Web links

Commons : Sant Cugat del Racó  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 51 ″  N , 1 ° 48 ′ 47 ″  E