Santo Sepulcro (Toro)
The Santo Sepulcro Church is a transitional Romanesque to Gothic church in Toro , a town in the Spanish province of Zamora . The church is located on the Plaza Mayor in the center of the village opposite the town hall ( ayuntamiento ).
history
medal
The church formerly belonged to the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem , which can trace its origins back to the forerunner founded in Palestine in 1099 as the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher . The motto of the order is Deus lo vult and thus recalls the time of the Crusades . As a result of donations, the order had considerable property, mainly in southern Europe, which was administered and managed by commanderies , with the actual field work or dairy and cattle farming being in the hands of dependent farmers.
church
The original church building can very probably still be assigned to the 13th century, with the older Romanesque building phase ( apses ) being replaced by an early Gothic ( nave ). Further renovation measures are documented from the 16th and 17th centuries.
architecture
Exterior
From the outside, the church is a rather inconspicuous building made of brick , although rectangular fields of the outer walls are plastered at regular intervals. The masonry behind the plaster could have consisted of rough natural stone, but there is very little rock in the area around Toro, so it is more likely that there are also masonry bricks - possibly fragments - behind the plaster layer and the plaster primarily was meant decorative. The unadorned portal zone is made of light-colored brick sandstone that had to be transported from several kilometers away. Above the arched portal is a modern coat of arms of the Order of Malta ; A small bell gable is placed above the eaves . The unadorned west tower is made entirely of bricks and has only a simple flat pyramid roof over the bell chamber.
Interior
The interior of the church, which is not vaulted, but covered by an open roof structure, surprises with its spaciousness, which is achieved by two huge arches made of hewn natural stones that take up the entire length of the nave - it is only recognizable from the three apses of the building that it is is actually a three-aisled church. The two arches are designed differently - the edges of the left one are chamfered and it is slightly higher than the right one; overall, it looks slimmer and more elegant. The three apses are each divided by two superimposed rows of arches; the arched fields of the central apse are designed somewhat deeper. The interior of many arched fields is plastered, in others there are window openings - all of which were later walled up. In the dome of the central apse there is a medieval fresco showing Christ in a mandorla - surrounded by the symbols of the four evangelists .
Furnishing
The church is equipped with a simple baptismal font from the 13th century, two wooden crucifixes (one with a shaved head) and an elaborately designed coffered ceiling from the end of the 16th century in the west.
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 31 '17.2 " N , 5 ° 23' 38.4" W.