Catalan Romanesque and Santiago de Compostela Cathedral
Catalan Romanesque Architecture
Sant Climent de Taüll, along with San Martin de Canigó, Sant Pere de Rodes, and San Vicente de Cardona, represents the best of Catalan Romanesque architecture. These three churches feature crypts, an element that coexists with an aisle in the case of Sant Pere de Rodes, marking the first aisle of the Romanesque Peninsula. They showcase strong, classical, massive barrel vaults overlapping and resting on a plinth. San Vicente de Cardona also revives early Christian models by placing the presbytery at a height above the nave.
Sant Climent de Taüll is a basilica-style temple. Its three naves lead to three semicircular apses, forming a very characteristic header. The archaism is evident in the choice of a wooden deck, except for the apses. The gradual replacement of wood with a stone covering can be observed, intended to curb the real and constant threat of fires. Next to the header rise peculiar towers, clearly based on Lombard architecture, reproducing the same buoyant rhythm of the openings. The area occupied increases significantly as we ascend, reinforcing the verticality of this architectural element. The rigging is poor and rustic, with a total absence of monumental sculptural art.
This set was studied in the early twentieth century by Puig i Cadafalch, who was the first to acknowledge its great artistic talent. Notably, this church houses one of the most significant apses of Romanesque painting, featuring the impressive figure of the Pantocrator (Maiestas Domini), which best illustrates this type of representation of Christ.
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
In 814, the bishop of Iria Flavia discovered the tomb of the Apostle Saint James. In the year 899, during the reign of Alfonso III, a new basilica was established with Visigothic and Mozarabic elements. Alfonso VI began the construction of the current cathedral between 1077 and 1078. Since then, a series of constructive campaigns have taken place:
- The first, headed by Master Bernard, built little more than the header.
- Between 1100 and 1124, almost the entire cathedral complex was built, lacking the final stages of completion on the west side, the main façade, and the towers that flank it.
- The third stage, led by Master Mateo from 1168, involved the construction of the Old Cathedral Crypt, the previous support for his famous Portico de la Gloria.
The cathedral was finally consecrated in 1211. Centuries later, it would be revamped on the outside by a series of campaigns that deeply transformed its original Romanesque image into a Baroque one.
Architectural Features
The cathedral is a pilgrimage church with a Latin cross plan, featuring three naves, a huge transept elevated above the floor, also divided into three naves with four apses in its arms, and a wide header with a remarkable central apse, an ambulatory, and five radiating chapels around it. The apses are covered with quarter-spheres, and in the middle of the transept stands a domed cupola supported on trunks, currently heavily transformed. The ambulatory is covered with curved edges, a more difficult task. Robust exterior buttresses support the structure.
The structure is based on a system of cruciform pillars with adjacent columns, arches, and arches for the nave. The second level features clerestory windows, a characteristic of pilgrimage churches, as described in the Codex Calixtinus. The exterior is now quite altered by Baroque additions, unlike other contemporary examples, such as Saint Sernin de Toulouse.