Santa Maria de la Tossa de Montbui

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Church of Santa Maria de la Tossa de Montbui

Santa Maria de la Tossa de Montbui is an early Romanesque church building in the rugged mountain landscape in the hinterland of Barcelona , Catalonia .

location

The church of Santa Maria de la Tossa de Montbui is located in the municipality ( municipi ) of Santa Margarida de Montbui in the Penedès region in the province of Barcelona (Catalonia). It lies - together with the remains of a castle - at an altitude of about 610 meters above sea level. d. M. not far from the 627 meter high summit of Tossa de Montbui . The distance to the eastern town of Santa Margarida de Montbui is about two kilometers (driving distance).

history

A castle at this point is mentioned as early as 936; it is the time of repopulation ( repoblament ) of the area by the Christians after the withdrawal of the Moors . Borrell II, the then bishop of Vic, began building a church only a few years later (around 970), but work on the further expansion of the castle and the church had to be interrupted shortly afterwards due to attacks by the Saracens . So it was reserved for the bishop and abbot Oliba , the 'father of Catalonia', and the Count Guillem de Oló (also Guillem de Mediona ) commissioned by him , in order to complete and consecrate the building in 1035. The church experienced - especially in the 16th century - some subsequent changes (portal, bell gable , sacristy ) and was the parish church of the village until the completion of the new Santa Margarida church at the beginning of the 17th century. The building was extensively restored in the 1950s and 1960s.

architecture

Exterior construction

The church building, made of roughly hewn rubble stones , closes on the east side in three adjacent apses , which are divided by pilaster strips and arched friezes and each have a small - previously unglazed - window. In Catalonia, such an architectural structure is always traced back to Lombard suggestions, models and probably also stonemasons, which Abbot Oliba is said to have brought back from a trip to Rome in 1011. The outer walls of the nave and the west facade are without any further dividing elements; There is a cross-shaped window opening in the west facade. The portal on the south side, made of precisely hewn stones, was added in the 16th century; the two-arched bell gable probably dates from the same time.

  • three apses

  • South side with portal

  • South side and castle ruins

  • West side

Interior

The barrel vaulted nave has three aisles and a total width of about 6.20 meters and a total length of about 11.50 meters; the three naves are separated by two arcades over columns - composed of stone drums - with undecorated capitals and fighter plates . The arches of the aisles are only slightly lower than those of the central nave.

  • Central nave and altar

  • Central nave

  • Altars in the central and side aisles

Furnishing

The church's furnishings include a Romanesque baptismal font with a double jagged band , a carved statue of Our Lady from the 14th or 15th century and two wooden block chairs with ornamentally carved backrests.

  • Baptismal font

  • Mother of God statue

  • Wooden block chairs

literature

  • Vicenç Buron: Esglésies Romániques Catalanes. Artestudi Edicions, Barcelona, ​​p. 78, ISBN 84-85180-06-2 .

Web links

Commons : Santa Maria de la Tossa de Montbui  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 41 ° 33 ′ 18.8 "  N , 1 ° 34 ′ 50.2"  E