Leon's Basilico St. Isidoro is a good Romanesque counterpart to its Gothic cathedral. Built over a temple to Mercury, then a Visigothic church, then a mosque, the present building, dating from the 10th century, was a church, a monastery, and the burial shrine of a number of Spain's earlier monarchs. That is, until Napoleon's troops used the royal pantheon as a stable in the eary 1800s. The murals adorning the royal pantheon somehow survived, and are today some of the best Romanesque art in Spain.
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| St. Isidore's (he was a pre-Moorish saint from Seville) |
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On the Camino Santiago from France, St. Isidore's has seen a
variety of additions, renovations, etc. |
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| Even a little Baroque |
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| Nave |
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| Vaulting |
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| Mostly barrel |
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| Altar |
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| Very Romanesque |
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| Nice carving |
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| Maybe a bit Moorish |
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| Cloister |
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| Sort of funny faces |
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| Not very, however |
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In the royal pantheon, where they don't allow pix (these are
pix of pix, but give a good sense of the place); referred to, by
the St. Isidore folk as the "Sistine Chapel" of Romanesque
art |
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Mostly New Testament scenes, the gospel writers, and, of course,
a Pantokrator |
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| All remarkably well preserved from the 12th century |
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| More Romanesque faces |
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| All over, but maybe not the best we have seen |
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Hilariously, in the gift shoppe, they offer
slides--slides--of the "Sistine Chapel" art, in lieu
of forbidding photography there! Anyone still
have a slide projector?! |
1 comment:
We have a slide projector but haven't used it in years. Wonder if it still works...
Interesting that they sell slides. Maybe Europeans still use their projectors!
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