Durham Cathedral

The Beginnings

The story of Durham Cathedral really begins further up on the East coast of England, on the little island of Lindisfarne. This site is important in the history of art, for it was here that the Benedictine community produced the Lindisfarne Gospels (before 721), one of the great illuminated manuscripts of the world. Less happily, Lindisfarne was also the first part of England to be attacked by Vikings (793) and in 875 further attacks led them to leave the island. Carrying with them the remains of their venerated Saint Cuthbert (died 687), the monks led a peripatetic existence until they settled in Durham in 995. There they built a church of some kind, the ‘white church’ of the tenth century, of which no trace remains.

The next significant date is 1066, the year of the Norman invasion led by William the Conqueror. Under the Normans, the Church in England was reconstructed: dioceses were redrawn, and bishoprics and other top jobs were, in many cases, given to Norman nobles. This colonial occupation also put Saxon England in close touch with international currents of thought and culture. And so churches and castles based on Norman models were constructed, and earlier Saxon constructions were destroyed to make way for them. The style of architecture the invader-occupiers brought with them was Romanesque (known as Norman in England), characterised by massive, heavy constructions, monumental and grave. The churches had much in common with fortresses, prompting the art historian Ernst Gombrich to call the style ‘Church Militant’. For churches were indeed conceived as fortresses, from which religious communities fought against the forces of evil.

Bishops

Durham now fell under the control of the new bishop Walcher (1071-80), a Lotharingian appointed by William I.  The first great building was the Bishop’s castle (which survives; Rochester in Kent is another example of castle and cathedral close together, and in both cases the castle looks over a river). The church was at this time run by secular canons, and Walcher planned to replace them with Benedictine monks from the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow.

In 1080 Bishop Walcher was killed by native Northumbrians, apparently angered with him and his entourage at their ineffective response to invasions by Scots. The next Bishop was William of Calais (1080-96; also known as William of St Carilef), who installed Benedictines to run the church and set about the construction of communal buildings for them around a cloister (these were on the south side of the present Cathedral and very little remains). In 1092 the Saxon church was demolished and in 1093 work began on what was to become one of the great Romanesque cathedrals of Christendom, the Cathedral we see today. Bishops in those days were expected to raise the funds for such projects themselves, and often ended funding them personally. William – who was exiled for political reasons for some years – was succeeded as Bishop by Ranulph Flambard (1099-1128), who oversaw building to its completion ‘usque testudinem’, up to the roof. The entire building, then, took forty years, a timespan comparable to Cluny (1088-1130, 42 years) and Santiago de Compostela (1078-1122, 44 years).

Durham

Like any other cathedral, Durham served several purposes. It was the seat, or cathedra of the Bishop, the church where the monks sang their offices, and the shrine of the relics of St Cuthbert, whose great reliquary-coffin was placed behind the high altar upon nine columns, tall enough to allow prayers to be conducted below. Unlike churches on the pilgrim route, like St Sernin of Toulouse, pilgrim-tourists do not seem to have been encouraged: there was no ambulatory to allow easy access to the relics, and no crypt to accommodate popular devotion. Vistors and congregants found themselves shut off from the choir, the space reserved for the monks, by a great screen and would have seen very little of the hours of the day celebrated by the community.

Design

Durham’s design was based on the great churches known to the conquerors, like Jumièges and St Etienne at Caen. But it is significantly larger than these, and the same length as Old St Peter’s in Rome, which was clearly used as a distant model. Its plan is typical of the period: a West End, flanked by two towers, leads to a nave and two aisles. There are eight bays, marked by a stately rhythm of alternating compound piers and simpler cylindrical columns. These lead us to the Crossing, the central space where the nave meets the choir, marked by a central tower. To either side of the Crossing are the arms of the Latin Cross, the north and south transepts.  Beyond the Crossing the choir stretched for four bays, leading to the Eastern apse. The aisles on either side of the choir also led to eastern apses.  The Elevation is in three parts: an arcade, a gallery over the aisles (also sometimes called triforium or tribune), and an upper clerestory, to let in the light. Characteristic of the Norman style (as the Romanesque is called in England) is the absolute clarity with which all the modules, stories and sections are articulated. That is to say, it is immediately clear where one section ends and another begins, and how they are related to each other.

Main Features

There is much to marvel at in Durham Cathedral, which, seen on its rocky promontory  from the river Wear below, has the most stunning exterior of any of England’s cathedrals. Inside, building work extending over four decades leaves its trace, and it is possible to see where builders altered their plans as they went along: the design of the vaulting, for example, changes as it extends from the choir aisles to the transepts and then the naves. The wall passage in the clerestory seems to have been a later thought, and the decoration increased dramatically after 1099: by this time the building, which customarily started at the East so the monks could hold their services as soon as possible, had reached the nave. But to follow the intricacies of the design as it proceeded a more detailed guide is necessary.

Two central features in Durham stand out: the ribbed vaulting and the carved decoration. Of these, the first has received most attention in histories of architecture as it is a groundbreaking structural development.  It also holds the onlooker’s gaze, which can follow an engaged shaft up a composite pier, ascending theough gallery and clerestory and continuing in an unbroken line across the ceiling and down again, a thrilling drama in stone. From the point of view of materials, ribbed vaulting is lighter than barrel or groin vaults, and so a good solution to the great problem of all stone vaulting – how to carry the immense weight, with its downward and lateral thrust, and yet have some wallspace available for windows?  In a ribbed vault, instead of a solid mass of stone, a frame of ribs stretching diagonally between piers carries an infill of light masonry. There is some reason to believe that initially this vaulting was only intended for the Choir, to mark it as a space of unusual sanctity (again, Old St Peter’s in Rome could have been the model, with its stone ciborium over the altar; Kilpeck in Herefordshire is an example of a Romaesque church where ribs are used only in the sanctuary). Then at some point, the argument goes (though nothing is certain), it was decided to extend tibbed vaulting into the transepts and then into the nave. As the work went westwards, changes were made to the angle of the arches and the size of the columns. There were other arguments for this project besides the practical ones. Aesthetically, the ribbed vaulting suits the design of the rest of the building, with its bold geometrical shapes and criss-crossing lines. And the stone vault would have increased the value of the Cathedral as a status symbol for diocese, Church and Crown. The ribbed vaults and pointed arches of Durham look ahead to the Gothic style of the next century. Yet oddly builders of the time appeared to be less excited by them than architectural historians today, since churches with fully ribbed vaulting do not appear in England until the late twelfth century.

The ribbed vaulting is also part of the second notable feature of Durham, its decoration. It is a wonderful example of the Norman style, with its emphasis on repeated geometrical designs, simple, bold and clear. The engaged shafts, running from the floor to the vault, have already been mentioned: these add to the vertical thrust of the building, in counterpoint to the horizontal march from West to East. This horizontal movement is made more interesting by the alternation of great composite piers, where a central column has shafts and internal half-columns attached, acting as internal buttresses, and smaller cylindrical piers. This creates what are called double bays, with two sets of diagonal rib vaults between each set of composite piers, which are joined by transverse pointed arches.  Decoration renders the great stretches of stone interesting to the eye, presenting intricacy amidst the vast scale of the building: the arches have undulating patterns carved on their underside, called soffit rolls. Columns are carved with spirals, chevrons, lozenges and flutes. Elsewhere such decoration would have been common in painted walls, but in Durham it is carved into the local sandstone itself.  If this geometrical design hints at an Eastern or Arabic source, that sense becomes stronger in the interlocking arches on the inner walls of the aisle, which are echoed on the exterior. We can see these in Islamic architecture, and in English gospel books of the period.

Later changes

Durham today is still largely the Norman Cathedral of the late eleventh century. But there have been some changes. In c.1175-80 the Galillee Chapel was added at the Western end, a five-aisled building in a more Gothic style, which served as porch and Lady Chapel. Here is deposited another relic, the remains of the great Anglo-Saxon monk and historian the Venerable Bede.  In the thirteenth century, the eastern end of three apses was replaced with a long arm, like a second smaller transept, known as the Chapel of nine altars. This allowed several monks to say divine office simultaneously, and would have made it easier for pilgrims to circulate. The great central tower was not completed until 1500, only 40 years before Henry VIII dissolved all English monastic communities in the Reformation. Over time the wooden furnishings of the Norman church have disappeared, along with the rood screen and pulpitum which would have blocked the laity off from the clergy. Yet it is still possible to imagine standing in the great nave, with less light than today, and candles flickering across wood, textile, stone, paint and metal. The total effect of architecture goes well beyond the forms laid down in stone.

Development of Christian Church Architecture

Outline of a vast subject: The Development of Christian Church Architecture


For more, I recommend this lovely book, well worth tracking down (I came across it in the Deanery second-hand booksale: Principles and Elements of Medieval Church Architecture in Western Europe


Architecture is probably the hardest bit of art history to get into, because seeing a photo of a building and actually moving around in it are categorically different experiences, and there's all the technical vocab to get comfortable with. But I remember worthily crunching through Pevsner at about 16, then going into Winchester Cathedral and actually seeing it - not a mass of fancy stone, but a structure of arcades and transepts and aisles and all the rest of it. The jargon is tedious but it opens things up. Today we have naming of parts. And naming connects to vision. a botanist can see things in a garden that I, in the same sense, can't. Reading about a church building - the plan, the elevation, the whatnots and bits and pieces - can be maddening until, click, your mind has generated a 3-D space and you can actually feel something of it. Also, fear of flying is well known, although the science of jet planes is (I'm told) pretty sound. But I've never heard of anyone afraid of entering a medieval cathedral, standing right underneath hundreds of tons of stone vaulting, put up there by medieval masons who were really just working it out as they went along and hadn't a qualification between them. (Yet pretty darned advanced physics was in the system somewhere. I wonder how they spoke about lateral thrust in the twelfth century, or compression.) Then again, if they've stayed up that long, one might think, coming back to the vaults. After all, they don't look that heavy.  And cathedral smashes are a rare news event (no doubt because the powerful Church Lobby keeps them out of the media). Pevsner does not write about architecture in this way, which is why is famous and must be crunched through.

Learning Architecture Terminology

Learning about architecture involves absorbing a fair few technical terms. As with identifying trees - my present hobby - the best thing is to go round looking at real buildings with a handbook and try out the naming of parts. Here are some recommendations.

Matthew Rice, Rice's Architectural Primer. This is the one I'd start with. Really helpful watercolour drawings which clarify parts of buildings and the different styles. If you're interested in domestic architecture (which tends to get overlooked in academic courses) then his Village Buildings of Britain is another treat.

Glossaries
It's always handy to have a glossary and / or illustrated history to turn to. A handsome printed one is: Owens Hopkins, Reading Architecture. I also consult Lever and Harris, Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture 800-1914. Though the title doesn't say so, this covers English architecture exclusively. It's well worth tracking down a second-hand copy. For a richly illustrated tour through Western buildings, an excellent book is Doreen Yarwood, A Chronology of Western Architecture.

Here are two (of many) online glossaries. You could try drip-feeding yourself on a term a day from these:
Buffalo Illustrated Architecture Dictionary
Roberta Barresi, Architecture Glossary

Classical
Learning the classical language - columns, orders and so forth - is a logical first move in studying Western architectural history. A classic, and handily short, text is John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture. This helps you not just to name the elments of buildings, but to think about their effects. A useful accompaniment is this online Glossary of Classical Architecture. The Looking at Buildings site has plenty of clear explanation.

Churches
Studying architecture in the West involves looking at an awful lot of churches, so it's a good idea to have something that focusses on this: Mcnamara and Tilney, How to Read Churches is very well illustrated.  Matthew Rice has one coming out next year, which I'm sure will be excellent:  Rice's Church Primer

St Vicenç, Cardona

This church is in the ‘First Romanesque’ style. The First Romanesque is a style of building of roughly 950-1050, the first century of Romanesque. This was a period when builders were experimenting with developing new forms and new solutions to the problems of vaulting and lighting a church. The style is common to churches in the Mediterranean area from Lombardy to Catalonia, from which it subsequently spread upwards to the regions of France. As well as being an example of this particular style, St Vicenç in Cardona exemplifies some of the key elements of Romanesque architecture: clearly organised space, with the units marked out by architectural elements; stone vaulting; a Latin Cross groundplan; the development of the East end with chapels projecting from transepts; blind arches decorating the exterior; and a general sense of restraint and fitness for purpose. As Eric Fernie puts it, “nothing is superfluous, nothing confused” (entry on Romanesque architecture in Grove). Studying this church is thus a good introduction to ‘reading’ Romanesque church architecture in general.

Location
Cardona is in the county of Bages, roughly in the centre of this map.

History

A church is documented on the site from 980. Around 1019, it was redeveloped by the Viscount Bermon, who reformed a religious (Augustinian) community that was present there from the late tenth century. The present church was built beween c.1029 and 1040, when it was consecrated by Eriball, the Bishop of Urgell .The church and community were under the control of the lords of the castle of Cardona – a reminder of the close association of Romanesque architectuyre and the feudal system.  Typically of many Romanesque churches, especially in Catalonia, it is dramatically situated on a rocky hilltop.

Groundplan. Source: learn.columbia.edu

Architecture

Groundplan:

·        The church is compose of a wide nave and two narrower aisles.

·        Naves and aisle are crossed by a transept, which is slightly wider, but not very long: it barely projects beyond the basic rectangular plan. Nave crossed by transept gives the Latin Cross groundplan.

·         The East end is emphasised, with chapels projecting from the North  and South arms of the transept, giving three semicircular apses.

Interior Elevation

Interior elevation. Source: romanicocatalan.com

·       Barrel vaulting is used in the nave, with transverse arches clearly articulating three bays + crossing. Aisles have groin vaulting.

·       The Tribune at the West forms a special gallery, an elevated space for the noble family of the castle: this is a feature derived from Carolingian architecture.

·       Inside the Crossing Tower is a dome carried on pendentives – a feature from Eastern architecture. Above that is the octagonal drum (cimborio).

·       The vaults are notably high (more than 19 metres), a characteristic feature of Catalan Romanesque churches, and also of Eastern derivation.

Piers; shafts continue into transverse arches. Barrel vaults



Nave: shafts join the two storeys; raised Chancel

Transverse arches and groin vaults in aisles.

Dome inside Crossing Tower. On pendentives, with scallop shapes.

·         Inside the Crossing Tower is a dome carried on pendentives – a feature from Eastern architecture.

Exterior

·         The Crossing is marked by an octagonal  tower.

·        Blind arches create a regular rhythm and unify the parts of the building. The decoration is very restrained, consisting of repeated shapes largely defined by straight lines.

·       The three chapels are clearly legible in the outward appearance of the East end.

Crypt

·         A three-aisled crypt with columns carrying vaults from simple pyramidal capitals lies beneath the Chancel, which is raised above the level of the nave.

Features typical of Catalan Romanesque: Nave and two aisles; high vaults; Latin Cross plan.

Features typical of Romanesque: articulation – clear division of space (bays, aisles, transepts, apses all clearly defined by simple lines and arches); symmetry in plan; austere decoration.

Another example of the 'First Romanesque' is St Philibert, Tournus.

Sources

Text, photos, plan and video on romanicocatalan.com

Catalan Wikipedia entry

Excellent photos, with images of the original painted decorations (c.1200) now in MNAC, are on the Catalan Monastery site.

Fernie, Grove entry; Zarnecki, Romanesque; Focillon, Art of the West.

Reading the Romanesque

In answer to a request, here are some suggestions for reading on Romanesque Art, conventionally dated to c.1000 to c.1200 with all sorts of blurring and overlapping at either end of course. Here are some one-stop-shop books which cover all the arts of the period. Specific books on architecture etc. can be left for other posts.

Anne Shaver-Crandell, Cambridge Introduction to Art: The Middle Ages is an excellent starting-point. Clear and helpful chapter on Romanesque.

Andreas Petzold, Romanesque Art is attractive, authoritative, readable. The emphasis here is on how the art worked within the society, so there are chapters on patronage, women, the Church, other cultures (Classical, Jewish, Islamic). Not much extended object-specific analysis, but an excellent primer on looking for the significance of works you do encounter.



George Zarnecki, Romanesque, has chapters on the different media: Architecture, Sculpture, Metalwork, Ivories, Stained Glass, Wall Painting, Book Illumination. The author takes us through the key features of each of these, and wears his enormous learning lightly. As with many older art books, this one challenges the reader by having illustrations on a different page from the text, so there is a good deal of flicking around which interrupts the reading. Well, we just have to get over it. The points Zarnecki makes in capsules about individual images (capital sculptures, for example) are outstanding.

Henri Focillon, The Art of the West 1: The Romanesque is a classic of art history. First published in 1938, it shows the author's appetite for dealing with whole cultures, whole centuries, looking for deep principles which help us to understand the individual object. Focillon writes wonderfully, in a style quite different to most approved art history. Of Romanesque imagery - bestiaries, strange distorted sculptures - he says: 'It seems, not the created world, but the dream of God on the eve of the Creation, a terrible first-draft of his plan'. Thoughts like that put a smile on your face and transform the act of seeing. Plenty to be learned here - as far as I can tell, it's not overly dated - and inspirational too.

Zarnecki and other scholars produced English Romanesque Art 1066-1200, the catalogue which accompanied a major exhibition of Romanesque art from England, at the Hayward way back in 1984. All the arts are covered, and detailed descriptions of the exhibits make it a good source for getting to know particular works. Lots of information, perhaps best for occasional detailed reading.

A quick mention for two books which cover a wider period than those above:  John Beckwith, Early Medieval Art and C R Dodwell, The Pictorial Art of the West, 800-1200. Best read in that order. That's a long enough list for now.

Romanesque Architecture (Links)

Maria Laach abbey (1093-1177). Image from Sacred Destinations

A links-only post on Romanesque architecture.


General / Introductory

Text
My own short handout, intended for a particular exam (Cambridge Pre-U), but perhaps of wider use, is available here:



Sacred Destinations General Features of Romanesque architecture
Outline introduction from cartage site

Video / ppt
Short Introductory video
Romanesque Sculpture and Architecture Lecture
Powerpoint resources on Slideshare

Survey
For a thorough survey see the article by Eric Fernie on Romanesque architecture in Grove Art Online (subscriber only)

Glossary
Glossary for Medieval Art and Architecture from pitt.edu


Particular Buildings

Santiago da Compostela
A Full Scale 3D Reconstruction of the Medieval Cathedral and Town of Santiago da Compostela. Two-hour conference on the Romanesque Cathedral and town, with detailed information.

Conques
Abbey of Ste Foy de Conques documentary

Durham Cathedral
This 3D tour is probably the next best thing to visiting it for real.
Short discussion of Durham and Winchester on SmartHistory site
Durham website by Professor Roger Stalley.

Gaudí, Sagrada Familia

Gaudí's  Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) has attracted a huge amount of attention. Here are a few selected links that should help with deeper study of Gaudi's 'Expiatory Temple'.

General
Introductory video from SmartHistory site.
Generalitat Heritage profile of Gaudí's works, includes text on Sagrada Família. Short video on Gaudí, architect and craftsman.
There is a lot of information on the official website, including link to a Sagrada Familia app and a Virtual Tour.
Film on Gaudi's works (French) includes discussion of SF.
Short film (1 minute) on the projected completion of the building

Public and Critical Reaction
From its inception to its near-completion, the Sagrada Família has been controversial. The following give a flavour of the debate.
Josep Miquel Sobrer, 'Against Barcelona? Gaudí, the City and Nature', Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, 6 (2002), 205-219. Account of the building's relation to the city, and reactions to it.
Austen Ivereigh, 'Why Gaudí's Sagrada Família is a cathedral for our times' applauds the building in its current state.
Rowan Moore, 'Sagrada Família: Gaudí's cathedral is nearly finished, but would he have approved of it?' is less convinced.

Mathematics
It is quite a relief to retreat from heated debate into the pure world of Gaudi's paraboloids, conoids, ellipses and helicoids.
Gaudinian Geometry explores forms used across Gaudí's works.
The Accidental Mathematician (Izabella Laba) gives a gentle introduction to 'The Sagrada Familia and the hyperbolic paraboloid'
Gaudi's shapes are analysed in A Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything which combines maths and spirituality.
Gaudi and CAD is on the use of digital and computer modelling in the project
Art and Mathematics in Antoni Gaudí's Architecture goes into depth on the forms employed.

Barcelona, Sant Pau del Camp



View of East end and North apse. Note tower and blind arcading

The church of St Pau del Camp in Barcelona is a gem, tucked away at the edge of the busy Raval by the Ronda St Antoni. It is a rare and beautiful example of Romanesque architecture within the city. There does not seem to be much information in English - the Spanglish of the short leaflet is not very enlightening - so I offer here a translation - with some additions and abbreviations - of the history and architecture sections of the excellent website.





History

It is not known exactly when the monastery of St Pau delCamp was built. But in 1596 the tomb inscription of Count Wilfred-Borrell, the son of Wilfred the Hairy, was discovered there. This suggests that a monastery must have existed at the site in 911 (the date of Wilfred-Borrell’s death) and that, if it was indeed the burial ground of the Counts of Barcelona, it must have been a site of great importance. According to one much later source, from 1420, it was Wilfred the Hairy himself (first of the line of the Counts of Barcelona, and the father of Wilfred Borrell) who founded a monastery to St Paul here, but, again, there is no document to confirm this.

Count Wilfred's tomb inscription

Graves from the Romano-Christian era (4^th and 5^th centuries) have also been found in Sant Pau (the tombstone of the Count has an inscription from this period on the reverse side). Local tradition has it that there was a hospice in the same place, founded by Saint Paulino, which would date it to the early fifth century, but there is no documentary evidence supporting this. However, the use of Visigothic carvings in the principal door to the church clearly show that a church existed here at that period (late 5^th to early 8^th century).

While its earliest history is undocumented, St Pau del Camp is clearly one of the most ancient monasteries of Barcelona. When it was built it lay far outside the city walls, among the orchards and the fields which lay between the walled city and the hill of Montjuic – hence its name, St Paul-in-the-fields.

In 985 Barcelona was sacked by the Moorish army of Al-Mansur. It is very likely that the (Benedictine) monks abandoned St Pau: for more than a hundred years afterwards the monastery was empty, and  only the church remained open.

Foundation

At the end of the 11^th century,  the nobleman Geribert Guitard and his second wife Rotlendis, both of the family Bell-lloc, restored St Pau del Camp. This restoration must have been effectively a rebuilding, since so little remains from before this date. Geribert and Rotlendis refounded the monastery, joining it with that of Sant Cugat del Vallès to form a single monastic community. Thus was born the Priory of St Pau del Camp. Some years later (29^th April 1117), the foundation was placed under the protection of the Bishop of Barcelona and Archbishop of Tarragona, Oleguer (later Saint Oleguer), after Geribert and Rotlendis donated the castle of Bell-lloc (in Cardedeu) with all its privileges. The donation is recorded on the tombstone of Guillem de Bell-lloc. Placing St Pau under the Holy See in this way gave it autonomy. The house of Bell-lloc retained its association with the monastery, and in 1278 Beltran de Bell-lloc left it the greater part of his possessions in his will, in return for being buried in the cloister.

In 1127, Oleguer  and the monastery’s founders Geribert and Rotlendis once again put St Pau under the charge of San Cugat monastery, despite its autonomous status.

Model of church and former monastery complex (Catalunya en Minitura park)

The ‘Tarragona Cloistered Congregation’

The ‘Congregación Claustral Tarraconense’ was founded in 1229. This was composed of all the Benedictine monasteries of Catalan lands, and by papal commission the Prior of St Pau was appointed president of the assembly. As a result, many assemblies of abbots and priors met in St Pau, and there are numerous documents pertaining to these meetings which were signed in the monastery.

In 1492, by royal decree, the monastery of Montserrat was united to the community of Saint Benedict in Valladolid. The Congregation of Catalan monasteries was thus split, and their assemblies became steadily less important.

Montserrat Monastery became increasingly interested in the monastery of Sant Pau, and in 1577 they finally persuaded Pope Gregory XIII to decree the union of the two communities. A year later the observant monks of Montserrat moved to St Pau, much to the displeasure of the Catalan Congregation, who had now lost their main meeting place. After many protests from the Congregation, the monks of Montserrat moved in 1593 to the Benedictine monastery of Bages, which was closer and better suited to the needs of Montserrat.

But the independence of St Pau did not last long: in 1617 it was annexed by Pope Paul V to the monastery of Sant Pere [Peter] de la Portella  (in the county of Berguedà), whose monks (with a single exception, who stayed behind as curate of the church) moved to St Pau, which changed in status from priory to abbey. In 1672 the buildings were enlarged to accommodate the school and novices of the Benedictine Congregation of Catalunya.

The End of the Monastery and the Start of the Parish

In the years 1808-1814, when Spain was occupied by the French, the monastery became first a hospital for the French troops and subsequently a barracks for Italian soldiers. In October 1814, when the French had left, it opened once again as a teaching institution. This was owing to the efforts of a young teacher named Joan de Zafont, who two years later was appointed Professor of Theology at the age of only 27; later he would become the last abbot of St Pau del Camp.

1820-23 are the years of the ‘Trienio Liberal’, three years of liberal government in Spain. During this period, the government decreed the dissolution of the monastery and novitiate and created the parish of St Pau. The monastery buildings – with the exception of the church which continued to serve as a parish church – were appropriated by the government, who passed them to Barcelona City Hall [ie the Council]. The City Hall initially considered using them as an abattoir (!), then decided to use them as a reformatory. Fortunately this period was a brief one, and was overseen by Joan de Zafont, who had been appointed administrator of the parish of St Pau in 1822.

[In 1823 a French army invaded Spain and restored the absolute power of the monarchy]. When the Trienio fell in 1824 the monastery returned to its original use, although since it was still used as a barracks for French soldiers (who remained to protect the monarchic government), the monks themselves could not return until 1828.

In 1835 there was a popular uprising in Barcelona in protest at working and living conditions; as on other occasions, this expressed itself through the burning of religious buildings and factories. It is likely that the monks of St Pau del Camp left definitively at this point, although it was spared destruction.

In 1837 the Minister of Finance Mendizábal oversaw the ‘desamortización’ or confiscation of Church property, which the government then auctioned in order to raise funds to reduce the chronic public deficit. The Church of St Pau became the parish church, while the rest of the monastery was used for various functions: in 1842 it housed two schools, one for boys and one for girls, and from 1845-90 it was an infantry barracks. In 1879, after a campaign led by a patriotic Catalanist group led by the writer and politician Víctor Balaguer, St Pau del Camp was recognised as a national monument.

Fifteen years later, in 1894, the first phase of restoration began. This concluded in 1927 with the demolition of the outbuildings, with the exception of the gothic chapter room of the fourteenth century. work was set back by further destruction in the Tragic week (1909) and in 1936 (the start of the spanish Civil War). Recent restoration has concentrated on levelling the terrain, which has been affected by rain and floods, and dealing with the problems caused by dust and dirt and the erosion of timber and stone. Of the original monastery of St Pau del Camp, today there only remains the church, the chapterhouse, the cloister and the abbot’s house, which is now the rectory.

Architecture

The monastery of St Pau del Camp is one of the few surviving Romanesque buildings in Barcelona. Although we know it existed in some form in the tenth century, the structure we see today is the result of the rebuilding in the twelfth century.

Exterior
The principal door to the church is reached from the carrer de Sant Pau. From this side we see that the facade of the church is at right angles to the wall of the rectory (formerly the abbot’s residence), a typical feature of thirteenth and fourteenth century Catalan Gothic.

The door is flanked by two columns supporting the round archivolt. The decoration of the door complex is in the visigothic tradition: two marble visigothic capitals, presumably recovered from the older building, carry imposts with geometrical motifs. The facade carries the symbols of the four evangelists: at the base of the archivolt we find a lion (St Mark, on the left), an ox (St Luke) and above the archivolt, on the wall, a winged man (St Matthew) and an eagle (St John).

On the tympanum Christ in Majesty is in the attitude of blessing (below the highest facade sculpture of the divine hand blessing), accompanied by St Paul on the right and St Peter on the left. On the lintel beneath, immediately beneath the figure of Christ is a Cross with inscriptions of alpha and Omega, and the names of Sts Peter and Paul. Around this is an inscription which reads: ‘This door is the way to the Lord for all, the door to the Garden of Life. Enter here, passing through me. Renard, for himself and for the soul of his wife Ramona, gave 7 maravedís towards the building of this church.’

Around the archivolt are carvings of human, fantastic animal faces and vegetal motifs. The west wall on either side of the door is decorated by blind arcading, which is continued around the exterior.

Interior



View from Crossing. Shell-shaped concavities in pendentives

From the outside one can see the Greek cross for of the church, which is made up of a nave, transepts, and three apses .  The ceiling consists of barrel vaulting, and a dome over the crossing supported by pendentives, carrying  an octagonal tower. As on the outside, the interior wall surfaces are articulated by blind arches.

The south transept leads to the gothic chapter room, which in turn connects to the Romanesque cloister. The three apses are decorated with carvings of vegetal and geometric forms which reveal an Arabic influence.  The groundplan makes the scheme clear, but conceals the many irregularities which are typical of the period.

Only limited light enters the interior, giving the church an atmosphere suited to prayer and reflection. The main altar was formerly dedicated to St Pau, patron saint of swordsmiths. On the right there used to an altarpiece dedicated to St Benedict and on the left an altar to Our Lady of the Rosary and to Saint Galderic, patron saint of peasants.

The floor of the church was restored in 2002, when the ground was levelled (it had been seriously affected by rain and floods).

The Cloister
From an architectural point of view, the cloister of St Pau is the most important feature: the arches here are unique in all of Europe. The twelfth-century cloister was constructed after the church, and shows clear Moorish influences.

Five-lobed arch, Moorish influence. Compare Gaudi, Casa Vicens

The arches are composed of three or five lobes, decorated with vegetal or geometric carvings, and rest on simple paired columns. The column bases are very simple, and two have vegetable designs, as if they are upside down capitals.

Of the 48 capitals, many repeat a pattern derived from the Corinthian, while others are clearly Romanesque, with zoomorphic designs. Figurative elements include lions, warriors fighting monsters, and birds of prey. Next to a carving of a man hunting a gazelle there is a depiction of Adam and Eve being tempted by the serpent, and a woman tormented by two toads.  Such motifs also appear in other Catalan monasteries, such as San Cugat. There is a stylistic mixture, from the Moorish arches to the Romanesque carvings of a group of sculptors, some of whose other works can also be seen in Barcelona, to Gothic elements.

Adam and Eve (left)

The cloister itself is clearly articulated, with buttresses in the middle of each side supporting a gallery. Around the cloister are several tombs, many of them pertaining to the Bell-lloc family.

Further Sources

Images

Video (images only)

Photo album by Angels Gomez

General
Web page with photos and good information on history and architecture (Spanish / Catalan): principal source for this blog
Catalan Monasteries (Catalan) - includes photos of the church in the early twentieth century.
Catalan Romanesque gencat guide: see opening pages on Romanesque style
Sacred Destinations site

History
Catholic Barcelona blog (English)
Josefina Mutgé i Vives, Noticies Historiques sobre el Monestir de Sant Pau del Camp de Barcelona (1117-1212) (Catalan)
armoria.info - details of tombs and heraldic symbols (Spanish)

Park

BCN Green Spaces page on church and surrounding space

Barcelona, Santa Maria del Mar

Santa Maria del Mar is one of the most beautiful churches in Spain, and the purest example of the distinctive Catalan Gothic style, characterised by undecorated wall masses, clear and minimally decorated articulation, and unified space. Together with the Cathedral and Santa Maria del Pi, Santa Maria del Mar one of the monuments of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture in the old quarter of Barcelona. To them we can add the church and monastery of Pedralbes. Santa Maria del Mar (Our Lady of the Sea) seems to turn its back on the modern city and communicates through its pure, spacious and simple style something of the devotion which inspired its creation. Anyway, below are some less rhapsodic and more factual notes. They are derived pretty much entirely from the Spanish Wikipedia page.

In Brief

·         SMM is a Catalan Gothic Church.

·         It is situated in the seafront area called the ‘Ribera’.

·         Built 1329 – 1383

·         The two masters of works were Berenguer de Montagut (principal designer) and Ramón Despuig

History

·         There is some evidence that it is built on the site of a Roman amphitheatre

·         The stones of the Portal of ‘las Moreras’ indicate that construction began in 1329

·         Local ties were very important: the work was undertaken by the faithful of the area of the port and the Ribera, who supported it with both money and labour. Thus it was a church for the common people, in contrast to the contemporary Cathedral, which was patronised by the monarchy, nobility and eminent ecclesiastics.

·         All the local population appear to have contributed to the construction, especially the ‘bastaixos’ – the stevedores who offloaded the huge stones at the port and then carried them on their shoulders to the church. A carving on the main door of the church pays homage to the ‘bastaixos’.

·         Walls, side chapels and façade were finished c.1350

·         In 1379, when the vaulting of the 4^th bay was nearing completion, the scaffolding caught fire and the stonework was damaged.

·       In 1383 the final section of vaulting was completed, and the first Mass was said in 1384.

·         In 1428 an earthquake caused the rose window  to collapse, causing some deaths.

·         In 1936 baroque and later work was destroyed when the church was attacked by anarchists and communists [making it look a lot less cluttered than the Cathedral]

Exterior. General Effect is one of massiveness and strength

·       Horizontality is emphasised. Walls have mouldings, cornices and smooth surfaces. Although it is a high building, the design of the exterior makes us see it as heavy and grounded (in great contrast to French Gothic).

·         Building as a whole forms a compact block.

·         The uniform height creates an even lighting effect inside (again distinct from the play of light and shadow in French Gothic churches)

·        Façade is framed by two octagonal towers. The columns on the inside take up this octagonal form.

·         Two pronounced buttresses frame the West rose window and emphasise the width of the vault.

·         Façade is clearly divided into three sections. Horizontality is again stressed in the towers, which have layered galleries rather than pinnacles or spires.

·         The lower level has the West portal at its centre; the second level is centred on the rose window

·         The West façade is particularly austere in the aisles, where there are large areas of undecorated and uninterrupted wall.

·         The light and elegant finials and other decorations of French Gothic are entirely absent from this typical example of Catalan Gothic.

·         On N and S walls the lower level corresponds to the side chapels, each of which is marked by a thin window. Windows and grouped into three between buttresses, creating a rhythm.

Interior

·         Plan: Nave, aisles leading directly to presbytery with ambulatory. No transept.

·         Nave and aisles formed of four bays

·         Presbytery formed of a half bay + seven-sided polygon.

·         Ribbed vaulting throughout, with bosses marking the intersection of the ribs (also a feature of the Cathedral).

·         Although the formal division is nave + aisles, the architect seems to want to create the same sensation as a single nave. This effect is achieved by:

o   Leaving a lengthy space (15 metres) between the columns

o   Making nave and aisles almost the same height: the aisles are only ⅛ lower than the nave.

o   This leads to a ‘diaphonous space’, quite different from the divisions of European Gothic

·         Nave lit by high clerestory windows.

·         Windows between presbytery columns create effect of a hemisphere of light

·         Aisles lit by small low windows

·         Spacious design allows light to illuminate the nave.

·         General effect of austerity created by:

o   Smooth walls without sculpted decoration

o   Undecorated, slender octagonal columns

o   Ribs springing from capitals (not following to the floor as engaged shafts) means columns retain pure form

o   Arches in nave and aisles have the same springing point (ie they start from the same height) further emphasising the effect of uniformity.

Other Sources
Santa Maria del Mar is one of a select group of churches that has inspired a novel (like Salisbury inspiring Golding's The Spire). Ildefonso Falcones' The Cathedral of the Sea  depicts fourteenth-century Barcelona in vivid detail, and keeps us reading with an adventure story typical of the genre. There is a huge amount to be learned from it about the city when Santa Maria del Mar was being built. Well worth checking out.

There is a brief description on the Sacred Destinations site, and a thumbnail sketch by the City council.

Description on Catholic Barcelona blog

Generalitat Catalan Gothic guide

Edward Steese, 'The Great Churches of Catalonia', Parnassus (7:3, March 1935), pp 9-12.

Robert Hughes, Barcelona, ch.3 ('If not, not') section v has a beautiful description of this church and other examples of Catalan Gothic in Barcelona.

To see how Gothic fits into the whole story of architecture in Barcelona (and Catalonia) see the Generalitat handy outline.