Elementos Arquitectónicos de los templos románicos

BIBLIOGRAFÍA

In architecture, the result of the harmonious and reasoned combination of Latin, eastern (Byzantine, Syrian, Persian and Arab) and northnern (Celtic,Germanic, Norman) buildings and their decorative elemnets is what is called in Art the Romanesque style;it was crated during the first centuries of the Lower Middle Ages.

Although the usual development of the Romanesque style took place along the 11th c. And 12th.c., some other buildings from the 10th c., can be included as well as buildings from subsequent centuries.

The Romanesque art is just a regional variety of the architectonic, sculptural and pictorial style of the 12th c., and part of the 13th c., Developed in Europe.

VARIETIES ◄ return

We can speak a “plain” and of a ”transitional” Romanesque in which we can include those buildings that seem to be Romanesque but have pointed arches without ribbed vaults. It appears as a variety of the “plain“one in the middle of the 11th.c., and coexists with it.

Another difference between the “plain” and the “decorated“ one is that the “plain “ one presents quite simple buildings with not many ornaments in their windows and doors which make them seem rough.This aspect will become lost in different ways according to the region or school.

Nevertheless, this distinction between “plain” and “decorated” can help us to date the different buildings that were built duirng the middle of the 12th.c, until part of the 13th.c, in Spain.

GENERAL FEATURES ◄ return

The Romanesque style is usually admitted to have solidity in their buildings, thickness in their walls, with round arches and barrel and groin vaults with lack of openings; It is also usual the stonework on a Latin crossed nave, and/or semicircular apses and a polygonal dome.

Ground Plan

BUILDING MATERIALS ◄ return

The most commonly used building materials are:

Ashlar: carved block of stone)The masons often had these ashlars specially marked to be charged afterwards.These walls had two thin layers of stone and a mixture of gravel(leftovers of stones after the carving of the ashlars).
The laying of the ashlar can be in a stretcher, in course, etc.

“Sillarejo”: smaller and rougher stone without being carved properly.

Rough stone: not carved stone. The “calicanto” was frecuently used by mixing masonry with mortar (lime, sand and water).

Bricks, wood, slate and fired clay were also used as basic materials for the buildings.

Transepts

GROUND PLAN ◄ return

The typical ground plan of a Romanesque church is the Latin nave. It can be formed by three aisles and two transepts. At the front, which points towards the east, will appear three or five semicircular apses or placed as a crown, each with at least three windows. The porch, which gives entrance to the church, is supported by two square towers.

If the churches at the villages have only a simple aisle, an apse without transepts and without towers at the entrance, the churches of big monasteries or sanctuaries have bigger transepts and chancel. Some churches even have so big transpts that seem two more apses. These three apses form the so called in Spanish “trifolio”.

The churches of the Templars and other equestrian orders are usually built on a circular or polygonal ground and quite small.There also exist small circular chapels which were originially funeral chapels o r for military purposes.These chapels may be designed as a Greek cross.

BUTTRESSES ◄ return

The characteristic supports of a Romanesque building are: the complex pillar and the outerly buttress sticked to the wall.The buttresses reinforce the walls and the arches ann vaults. Those outerly buttresses are plain and with a prismatic form. However, those sticked to the apses are alike columns that suppot the eaves. The walls are formed by “sillarejo” or by irregular courses of “slightly carved” stones.

Arquivolta

Columns

ARCHES, COLUMNS AND PILLARS ◄ return

The pillar is normally assembled on a cilindric base and is formed by a complex or simple pilaster that has one or two semicilyndric columns.

The columns have base and capital and are sticked to the central nucleus. There are semidetatched, two by two, four by four columns as well. These columns can be found in cloisters, arcades, galleries.

The Romanesque capitals gain interest because of their different and curious forms and carvings. They have been carved in different ways with sculpted vegetal and geometric motifs, or symbols or historical passages. The capital is crowned by a thick abacus that is often decorated with ornaments and in its lower part with a series of square modillion that looks like battelments. In those columns in yuxtaposition, the abacus usually covers all of them and so, all their capitals get joined together.

The bases of the columns have the form of a wide bull with any sculpture or a claw as the place where the bull is resting. The sculpting of the bases changes according to the taste of the century.

The foundation arches are rested on the abacus and are rounded and normally presented in rows of two or three. Something different happens afterwards: along the 12th.c., the arch becomes what it is called lancet or gothic arch which is going to be used as a matter of balance.

Bóveda de medio cañón

Bóveda de arista

ROOFS AND CEILINGS ◄ return

The ceiling of the different aisles and parts of the churches are usually a barrel vault for the central nave; a groin vault for the aisles and quite similar to the shape of a shell (“concha o de cuarto de esfera”) for the apses .There, a pendentive dome like a polygon rises.Sometimes this ceiling is made of wood.

This type of construction makes it difficult to give light to the buildings. The different solutions to this problem, given by the different schools, set up the main differences found in the Romanesque style.

The roofs formerly were laid on wooden armours, but became independent in the 12th.c.Thus, the roof with a pyramidal form could be used as a belfry.

Cúpula sobre pechinas

DOORS ◄ return

The doors are made up by several decreasing concentric arches that form a kind of arch with a molding in order to give a different visual effect.

Those doors which have lintel and tympanum have symbols or icons sculpted and even statues at each side of the door.

WINDOWS ◄ return

The windows are normally opened in the facade and apses and sometimes in the side wall. They are taller than they are wide and have a double arch at the top with moldings.They become wider and more ornamented in the last period.

The windows are closed with coluorless or colourful stained glass or with translucent alabster; with crystal clay or just with stone latticework. In those poorer churches they simply use waxed or impregnated in turpentine cloth. This is one of the reasons why the windows were so small. The generalized use of the stained glass window happened very slowly.

CORNICES ◄ return

They are made up on pilasters and walls and following the abacus of the capitals. The pediment is decorated and placed above the porch or below the windows.

ORNAMENTATION ◄ return

The typical ornamentation of the Romanesque style is made in the achivolts, capitals, doors, windows and consists of fractioned geometric lines, checked, saw blend, spearheads, series of arches, rossettes, vegetable motifs(not very well imitated) Icon statues, figureheads, bestiaries (monstruous representation of animals) and symbolic sculptures are also used to decorate the outdoor walls.

The indoor walls were decorated with several pictures on the same motifs and on religious or biblical scenes. The pavement sometimes was made up of mosaic.

We can also find some sculptures of flattened monsters by the base of the columns which have a moral meaning.

Pulsa para identificar
los elementos de una iglesia románica

STRUCTURE ◄ return

The general structure of a Romanesque has already been commented. The indoor structure is reflected outdoor on the buttresses that draw the parts of the nave.