Santa Marta (Santa Marta de Tera)
The Church of Santa Marta in Santa Marta de Tera, a district of the municipality of Camarzana de Tera in the province of Zamora in the Spanish autonomous region of Castile and León , was built towards the end of the 11th century as part of a monastery that has not survived today. The church is located on Via de la Plata , one of the pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela . In 1931 the church was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural ( architectural monument ).
history
Already in the 10th century there was a monastery on the Río Tera on the site of the current church, which was consecrated to St. Martha . The archives of Astorga Cathedral contain numerous documents relating to the history of the monastery and its church, which is still part of the Astorga diocese . The documents document the donations made to the monastery by the kings of León . In 1063 gave Ferdinand I and his wife Sancha of León, the monastery Bishop Ordoño of Astorga of gratitude for the transfer of the relics of Isidore of Seville (around 560-636) from the time one of the Moors occupied Taifa Kingdom belonging City of Seville . The church father , scholar and bishop of Seville was then buried in León in the Basilica of San Isidoro named after him . Today's Santa Marta Church was built towards the end of the 11th century based on the model of this church and probably by the same builder. A palace was built next to the church which served as the residence of the Bishops of Astorga until 1901.
In the 12th century a fire destroyed part of the nave and the west portal. Already in 1085 Alfons VI was walking. , King of Castile and León, converted the monastery into an Augustinian canon that existed until the 16th century. In the following years Santa Marta served as a parish church . The monastery buildings fell into disrepair and were demolished. The Palace of the Bishops of Astorga was used as a rectory from 1901 . In 1908 the historian and archaeologist Manuel Gómez-Moreno Martínez discovered the church and wrote a documentation about it. After the church was declared a protected monument in 1931, the restoration and the demolition of later extensions took place.
architecture
The church is built from large, regularly hewn ashlar stones. The plan of the church is a Latin cross . The nave is divided into three bays . A square lantern rises above the crossing .
A total of 199 corbels , some of which have figurative representations, are lined up under the roof approach . Four-legged friends can be recognized, leaves, fruits, pine cones and people, who are sometimes depicted naked. As the inner walls and the outer walls are several rows of chess friesen divided.
Portals
The church has three portals , one on the south side, one in the west of the nave, which is integrated into the former episcopal palace, and one on the west side of the north transept arm.
The south portal is the main portal of the church. It is framed by three arched archivolts . The two outer arches each rest on two reused marble columns , presumably from Roman times, the inner arch rests on posts, the fighters of which are decorated with geometric motifs. The capitals of the columns are badly damaged. Human figures, harpies and lions can be seen, from whose mouths entwined ribbons emerge. The warriors above the capitals are decorated with intertwined circles, one depicts dragons.
The two incompletely preserved sculptures in the spandrels of the portal were not originally at this point. The figure on the left shows the apostle James the Elder dressed as a pilgrim, with a pilgrim's staff and shoulder bag emblazoned with the scallop shell . The figure on the right probably represents another apostle. Both figures date from the 12th century and have similarities with the sculptures in the Church of San Isidoro in León.
South portal
Capitals on the south portal
Capitals on the south portal
Fighters at the south portal
The portal of the north transept is designed more simply. It has two archivolts, the exterior of which is framed by a scroll frieze. A heavily damaged statue of a saint was also placed on the south side of this portal at a later date.
apse
As is customary in early Romanesque churches in the area around Zamora, the apse is closed inside and out, which is attributed to the influence of Visigothic buildings such as San Pedro de la Nave . It is bordered on the side by two columns that merge into buttresses at the level of the capitals of the apse windows . The adoration of the Magi is depicted on the capital of the northern column . The capital of the southern column is carved with acanthus leaves . A reused capital from the Visigothic period with stylized leaf decoration is integrated into the buttress towering above it . Five arched windows open up in the apse, one on each side and three on the east wall. Of these three windows, only the middle one is broken through by a narrow, loopholed opening, the two outer windows are walled up. All windows are surrounded by a simple archivolt, which rests on slender columns with elaborately carved capitals. Lions, griffins, birds and foliage can be seen on the capitals.
Capitals on the apse
Capitals on the apse
Capitals on the apse
Capitals on the apse
literature
- Jaime Cobreros: Las Rutas del Románico en España . Volume 1, Madrid 2004, ISBN 84-9776-010-7 , pp. 207-208.
- Alberto Fernández Ferrero, Laura Illana Gutiérrez: Guía de Zamora y rutas por la provincia . Zamora 2010, ISBN 978-84-614-1351-5 , pp. 87-88.
- Antonio Vinayo Gonzalez: L'Ancien Royaume de Léon Roman . La Pierre-qui-Vire (Zodiaque) 1972, OCLC 164232815 , pp. 319-329.
Web links
- Santa Marta de Tera www.arteguias.com, accessed May 28, 2013 (Spanish)
- Santa Marta de Tera www.arquivoltas.com, accessed May 28, 2013 (Spanish)
Coordinates: 41 ° 59 ′ 40.2 " N , 5 ° 58 ′ 16.5" W.