Galician romanesque information - Galicia monumensts - Spain
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GALICIA Information - ROMANESQUE Mysticism |
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| Since ancient times, humankind's curiosity
opened roads towards Galicia, where the tomb of the Apostle St. James
was said to lie. "Ribeiras Sacras", or sacred river banks,
were to be the refuge of hermits who, in their Benedictine "work
and labour", preserved classical knowledge and taught crop-growing,
livestock farming and crafts. Defences such as the Catoira Eastern
Towers watched out over the rias against Saracen or Norman invaders.
Each period and each group left their consciousness: over old shrines
of pagan worship, Christian altars were built, a standard for the
first churches in the upper medieval world, such as the rupestrian
church of San Pedro de las Rocas, in the lands of Esgos, the Visigothic
Santa Comba in Bande, or Mixos in the Monterrei valley, Santa Eufemia
de Ambia, or the Mozarabic San Miguel, housed within the walls of
the CeIanova Monastery, all of them in the province of Ourense. After the year 1000, the sensitivity and mysticism of Romanesque entered the scene: in Melide, in the province of A Coruña, stands the church of Santo Antoniño de Toques, like San Xoan de Vilanova in Mino, or the Monastery of Caaveiro in the atlantic forest of Eume, San Martiño de Xubia, Espenuca in Coiros and the significant construction of Santa Maria de Cambre, like Santa María de Mezonzo in Vilasantar. In Foz, in the province of Lugo, San Martiño de Mondoñedo, the very first dioceses, where St. Gonzalo lived in the 10th century, and who was aid to have had the power to burn Norman ships with his eyes. Romanesque style matured over the tomb of the Apostle St. James, in Compostela, into an art of crossroads that combined the best of the classical oriental and western cultures, and feeding local traditions. This Romanesque site is replete with symbolism. The message has to do with chaos and cosmos, the beginning, the end and rebirth: altars to the east and doorways crowned with rose windows to the west, letting in the days' last rays of sunshine, that fall over the altar of redemption. Compostela, Ourense Cathedral, the one in Lugo, and the church in Portomarin were models to be copied. Galician Romanesque has superb examples in the "Ribeira Sacra" of the Miño, such as the monastery of Santo Estevo de Ribas de Miño, Diomondi, A Cova, Eire, San Fiz de Cangas or the Bernardine Convent of Panton. Romanesque style can also be seen along the banks of the River Sil, like the great monastery of San Estevo de Ribas de Sil, or Santa Cristina, in lush chestnut forests, overlooking the river gullies. In the town of Allariz, Alfonso 10th, the Wise King, established his court. Around this area, the routes have a suggestive medieval feeling: Santa Marina de Augas Santas, with its worship of the waters Christianized by the martyr St. Marina, or the superb Romanesque construction of Xunqueira de Ambia. Roads, watched over by the castle of the Counts of Maceda, leading to the Baroque sanctuary of Os Milagres, the meeting point for pilgrims. We can also come across Romanesque style in the dense forests of 0 Inicio, in Lugo, with an aura of the magician Merlin himself, and where the harmonious church of San Pedro Fiz de Hospital, in white marble, shines with its own light. The Romanesque of the Ribeiro is the inseparable companion of the vines and the mimosa flowers: churches, priories, monasteries with great economic power based on their wine cellars, such as San Tome de Serantes in Leiro, located next to the rolling hills of Pena Corneira, topped with huge boulders; in Bobonis the churches of Cameixa, Moldes or Astureses. Romanesque that defines Galicia, and spreads out from Santiago along the network of Finisterre roads, such as the Little Church of Cereixo, Mens or at the very Cape of Fisterra, Santa Maria das Areas. Along the French Way, there is Romanesque in the lands of Melide; in Deza like Ansemil, Breixa, or Caamanzo, in the area of Ulla; and Compostela, the surroundings of the Apostle's tomb, where a veritable galaxy of small churches are clustered. In the area of Pontevedra, there is A Franqueira near A Caiñza, Bemit in Caldas de Reis, Angoares in Ponteareas, or A Lanzada leading onto the O Grove peninsula. |
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