Romanesque

THE PERIOD OF THE COMPOSTELAN PILGRIMAGE’S GREAT FLOWERING, IN THE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CENTURIES, COINCIDED WITH A REMARKABLE AND DISTINCTIVE WAVE OF CHURCH BUILDING KNOWN AS THE ROMANESQUE. THE CHURCHES BUILT THEN ARE GENERALLY CHARACTERISED BY ROUNDED ARCHES RATHER THAN THE POINTED ONES OF THE LATER GOTHIC PERIOD. THEY ARE ALSO CHARACTERISED BY A PROPENSITY FOR MONUMENTAL SACRED SCUPTURE WHICH DREW ON CLASSICAL, CELTIC AND BYZANTINE INFLUENCES. THE MEDIEVAL MIND WAS PROFOUNDLY SYMBOLIC AND THE SCULPTED IMAGERY OF THE ROMANESQUE PERIOD IS RICH AND EVOCATIVE. MANY OF THESE CHURCHES HAVE SURVIVED TO PROVIDE A VIVID TESTAMENT TO A BYGONE ERA.

ROMANESQUE

Romanesque

Iconography: The Scallop Shell: It is not without reason that the pilgrims returning from the threshold of Saint James bear shells

Iconography: The Ass and the Harp

Frómista San Martín: The sixth proceeds from Burgos to Frómista

Saint Pierre de Rhèdes

Saint-Gilles-du-Gard: The monastic order under the patronage of this abbot flourishes, a possessed man is delivered from the devil

Sangüesa Santa Maria

Iconography: Atlants – One who knows the depths of the whole sea and keeps the tall pillars which hold heaven and earth asunder

Conques: Even the deep recesses of Erebus lie open as she leads souls out of the underworld

San Isidoro de Leòn: He who lives and reigns for evermore may order that His Church be free from the yoke of the Ishmaelites

Iconography: Masks