147- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
Spain’s wandering north/south split between
Christianity and Islam allowed markedly different
architectural styles to bask simultaneously under
one Iberian sun. So, while the Moors were creating
blindingly beautiful interiors down south, in the north
the solidity of the Romanesque movement clamped
onto architecture, superseded within two hundred
years by Gothic.Pilgrims’ progress: Romanesque architecture
While debate simmers over whether the Asturian
building surge at the end of the first millennium
recorded the first faint pulse of Romanesque
architecture, most accept that the style appeared
(or reappeared) in rude health in Catalonia in the 11th
century, led initially by the classically inspired builders
of Lombardy, northern Italy. As the Moors were pushed
slowly south, so Romanesque architecture moved its
Iberian frontier. And as it did so the more elaborate
Cluniac Romanesque style of France flexed its muscles,
littering the northern half of Spain with increasingly
complex churches. In particular, the churches clustered
along the Camino de Santiago, cashing in on the holy
highway that was drawing pilgrims from across Europe
through Navarre and León. Where Moorish influences
lingered longer, in towns like Arévalo, in Castile y León,
or Toledo, further south, Romanesque churches
carried strong Mudéjar features, best recognised in a
preference for brick over stone. Byzantine style also
lapped second hand into parts of Spain from Italy,
placing distinctive domes atop Romanesque churches,
of which Zamora cathedral is the most famous
example.Passing infatuation
Beyond the wealth of
churches, bridges seem
to be the only other
significant survivors
of northern Spain’s
Romanesque jolly. They
come in all sizes, from
the small but elegant
single span of Espot,
high in the Catalan
Pyrenees, to the larger
13 thcentury bridge
at Tortella, also in
Catalonia. However,
the supreme being of
Spanish Romanesque
bridges is the 11th
century effort at Puente
la Reina, in Navarre,
on the Camino.Nine of the best
The vertiginous Vall de
Boí in the Catalan
Pyrenees boasts the
densest concentration
of early Romanesque
architecture anywhere in
the world. All nine of the
valley’s unpretentious
Romanesque churches
have been placed within
the bounds of a UNESCO
World Heritage site.3.2.3 Reaching for the heavens:
Romanesque and Gothic
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