Sant Ramon (El Pla de Santa Maria)
The Church of Sant Ramon ( Catalan. Name form; Spanish. San Ramón ) is a former parish church in the municipality ( municipi ) El Pla de Santa Maria in the province of Tarragona in Catalonia . In addition to the monastery churches of Santes Creus and Escornalbou and the Cathedral of Tarragona , the small church of Sant Ramon is one of the jewels of the Romanesque period in southern Catalonia.
location
The church is located at a height of approx. 400 meters above sea level. d. M. on the northern edge of the place El Pla de Santa Maria about 35 kilometers north of the city of Tarragona or about 100 kilometers west of Barcelona .
history
In contrast to the north and the Pyrenees region , the south of Catalonia has been under Islamic rule without interruption since the years 713/4 and was only recaptured by the Counts of Barcelona ( reconquista ) in the first half of the 12th century . While churches could therefore also be built in the north in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries, the construction of Christian houses of worship in the south of Catalonia did not begin until the middle of the 12th century, with the Benedictine and Cistercian religious communities in particular giving a major impetus gifts.
The church, consecrated today to the Dominican Raimund von Penyafort , who died in 1275, who was venerated by the people and canonized in 1601, is mentioned for the first time in a document from 1194 as the Church of St. Mary ( Ecclesia beatae Mariae de Plano ), but - for stylistic considerations - it should continue until the beginning 13th century work on the late Romanesque building was carried out. Nothing is known about the client (s); The exact and rich execution of the building itself, equipped with a transept, the rose window and above all the portal on the south side suggest a priory church or a noble foundation that was later used as a parish church. In 1987 the church was restored.
architecture
Stone material
The church building, which is around 15 meters long and around 6.50 meters wide and around 6.50 meters high, is built entirely from precisely processed stone . The unadorned and plastered octagonal crossing tower was built at the end of the 18th century - whether in the place of a predecessor is not known, but probably.
Exterior construction
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The building - apart from the rose window and the portal - is rather unadorned, but equipped with a transept , has the layout of a Latin cross . The semicircle of the apse is undivided and ends below the eaves in a console frieze that surrounds the entire church and is mostly figurative.
Rose window
In the gable of the west facade there is an eight-spoke wheel window closed with alabaster panes , which can already be described as a rose window due to the lack of a clearly defined central hub . This window is very similar to the east window of the Cistercian monastery of Santes Creus , which is only about 15 kilometers to the east , which has given rise to various speculations about possibly existing dependencies.
portal
The unusually richly furnished archivolt portal with its eightfold staggered walls is the highlight of the church. The capitals of the portal vestments are decorated with vegetable motifs; the outer two show John the Baptist in his hairy robe (left) and the apostle Peter with the keys to heaven (right). On the left side of the lintel is the representation of the risen Jesus at the grave with the three Marys, in the field next to the apostle Peter; the center is reserved for the enthroned Mother of God with the baby Jesus in her arms in a mandorla held by angels at the side ; to the right, probably Paul and a scene with the kings following a star . The tympanum field is unworked. The front of the inner archivolt is adorned with a braided ribbon motif , in the next outer arch there is a row of angels and further outside another geometric braided ribbon in a background formed by tendrils .
Interior
The single nave nave of the church is - like the transept - covered by a barrel vault with a slightly pointed apex . The apse closes with the usual dome vault . In the crossing area there are some figural capitals with scenes from the Old Testament .
Detail photos
Rose window (detail)
Console figures in the gable
left portal vestments - John the Baptist
Capitals (detail)
right portal vestments - Peter
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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. 27.
Web links
- Esglesia Sant Ramon - Photos + Info (Catalan)
- Esglesia Sant Ramon - Photos + Info (Catalan)
- Esglesia Sant Ramon - Photos + Info (Catalan)
Coordinates: 41 ° 22 ′ 4 " N , 1 ° 17 ′ 17" E