Sant Julià de Coaner
The church of Sant Julià de Coaner was possibly a former priory church or a noble castle chapel . The small village of Coaner still has about 20 inhabitants and belongs to the municipality of Sant Mateu de Bages in the Catalan province of Barcelona .
location
The church is located at a height of about 380 meters above sea level. d. M. on the western edge of the village of Coaner a good 20 kilometers north-west of the city of Manresa and about 87 kilometers north-west of Barcelona . A simple piste road, which is also used as a hiking trail, leads from the small town of Súria , about five kilometers to the east , to Coaner .
history
The church was consecrated in 1024 by Ermengol, then Bishop of Urgell . At first the building probably had a Marian patronage , which was later converted into one of St. Julian was converted.
architecture
Stone material
The church building, which is around 15 meters long and around 9.50 meters wide inside and around 5.5 meters high in the central nave, is built entirely from largely unprocessed rubble . The tower and the outer wall structure of the church show the beginnings of the Lombard style imported into his Catalan homeland shortly after the year 1000 by Abbot Oliba from northern Italy .
Exterior construction
The outer walls of the almost square church building are only broken through by a few small windows. The west facade without portal but pierced by three small windows (one of them in the shape of a cross) shows a slightly asymmetrical structure of ascending and descending blind arcades , which are formed from pilaster strips with rounded arched friezes ; the same motif can also be found on the south side and on the two lateral apses . The slightly higher central apse also has a number of blind windows below the eaves . All three apses each have an unadorned central window. The simple portal on the south side dates from 1573 and breaks through the otherwise symmetrical design of the south wall of the church.
Bell tower
The church building is dominated by a two-storey bell tower placed in the middle above the west facade, the structure of which consists of twin windows ( ajimeces ) that grow larger towards the top . Below the eaves - with the exception of the corners - a circumferential tooth cut frieze can be seen. The pyramid-shaped roof is covered with stone shingles ( llose ). The relatively large window openings in the tower compared to the church building and the slender pillars make a later construction period (12th century) likely.
Interior
The unadorned and almost square nave of the church has three aisles, which would be very unusual for a simple parish church at that time. The barrel vaults spanning the interior are each divided into three yokes by belt arches . The three apses have domes . The four pillars in the center of the church show a cross-shaped floor plan. The stone slabs of the floor are probably still original.
literature
- Catalunya Romànica. Fundació Enciclopèdia Catalana, Barcelona 1987, ISBN 84-85194-56-X .
- Vicenç Buron: Esglésies Romàniques Catalanes. Artestudi Edicions, Barcelona 1977, ISBN 84-85180-06-2 , p. 85.
Web links
- Sant Julià de Coaner - map, photos + quick facts (catalan)
- Sant Julià de Coaner - photos
- Coaner, church and castle - information (catalan)
- Sant Julià de Coaner - view from the west
Coordinates: 41 ° 49 ′ 58 " N , 1 ° 42 ′ 41" E