Sant Quirze de Pedret

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Sant Quirze de Pedret (from the southwest)
Sant Quirze de Pedret (from the southeast)

Sant Quirze de Pedret is a pre-Romanesque church in the Mozarabic style. Of particular importance are her wall paintings , which are exhibited today in the Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona ( Diocesan Museum of Solsona ) and in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona .

location

The church is located about three kilometers east of Berga , but belongs to the municipality of Cercs in the Spanish province of Barcelona in the comarca of Berguedà in the autonomous region of Catalonia . The church is lonely on the slope of a hill and can only be reached on a footpath and over a four-arched medieval bridge that crosses the Riu Llobregat .

history

The now abandoned place Pedret was first mentioned in 983. The oldest surviving sources referring to St. Quiricus church, date from 1167. A first, single-nave building was built around 900. In the middle of the 10th to the beginning of the 11th century, two aisles were added, which lead into apses with a horseshoe-shaped floor plan. The paintings in soot , ocher and red chalk in the central apse, which came to light in the apse under frescoes from the 12th century during restoration work in 1937 , also date from this period .

After the church had been abandoned for a long time, a first restoration was carried out from 1959 to 1964. Since then, services have been held here again . Another restoration, which was also associated with excavations , took place from 1989 to 1992. The apses were re-covered with reproductions of roof tiles from the 10th century that were found during the excavations. Inside, the plaster was renewed and the remaining wall paintings restored or copies made.

Floor plan of Sant Quirze de Pedret

architecture

All parts of the church building are made of quarry stone . In the east, the two lower, horseshoe-shaped side apses adjoin a larger, rectangular central apse. Today the entrance is on the site of the south aisle, which was partially demolished in the 13th century. The Romanesque portal - unfortunately badly damaged - is preserved under a canopy . The present nave and the trapezoidal chancel, which opens behind a horseshoe arch and is spanned by a barrel vault, date from the first building from around 900 . There are horseshoe arches between the aisles and the main nave.

Murals

Central apse
Central apse

On the front wall of the apse two paintings were discovered in 1937 under a fresco base from the 12th century, which are assigned to the middle of the 10th to the beginning of the 11th century and which are now replaced by copies. The originals are in the Solsona Diocesan Museum .

The left image shows a cross about two meters high with a circle in the middle, in which there is a knight with a lance and standard , as well as a small human figure and a dog, as well as a peacock with a dove on his back. Outside the circle, under the left cross arm, stands a man in long clothes. Under the right cross arm a person with a staff kneels next to a fire.

To the right of the apse window you can see a circle with a diameter of about one meter, in it a male, bearded figure dressed in a tunic depicting a person praying with outstretched arms. Above the circle sits a bird, perhaps a peacock, symbol of eternal life.

South apse

The paintings in the south apse are assigned to the time around 1100; they mainly represent the wise and the foolish virgins of the parable ( Mt 25 : 1-13  EU ), with the wise virgins outwardly distinguishing themselves from their competitors by their crowns and their more precious robes. Copies are on site; the originals have been in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona since 1922 .

literature

  • Achim Arbeiter , Sabine Noack-Haley: Christian monuments of the early Middle Ages from the 8th to the 11th century. Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2312-3 , pp. 395-398.
  • Jaime Cobreros: Guía del Prerrománico en España. Madrid 2006, ISBN 84-9776-215-0 , pp. 187-190.
  • Jacques Fontaine: L'Art Mozarabe. L'Art Préroman Hispanique. Vol. 2., La Pierre-qui-Vire (Zodiaque) 2nd edition 1995, pp. 277-287.

Web links

Commons : Sant Quirze de Pedret  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 42 ° 6 ′ 26 ″  N , 1 ° 53 ′ 0 ″  E