Leon's Basilico St. Isidoro

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.

St. Isidore's (he was a pre-Moorish saint from Seville)

On the Camino Santiago from France, St. Isidore's has seen a
 variety of additions, renovations, etc.

Even a little Baroque

Nave

Vaulting

Mostly barrel

 

Altar

Very Romanesque

Nice carving

Maybe a bit Moorish

Cloister

Sort of funny faces

Not very, however

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

Mostly New Testament scenes, the gospel writers, and, of course,
a Pantokrator

All remarkably well preserved from the 12th century

More Romanesque faces

All over, but maybe not the best we have seen

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?!

Leon Cathedral: Interior

The interior was even better than the exterior...

Nave view...there's the usual choir, seemingly obstructing any decent view of the
majesty of the building

But wait! They've left the portal to the choir open, and you can
see all the way through to the altar

The other great thing about Leon Cathedral is its glass; not 12th or 13th century,
but an overall aesthetic effect comparable to the great ones

Again, peering through the choir to the altarpiece

In the choir, one bank of organ pipes, bristling with anti-aircraft
guns (normal in Iberia)

Choir

Up closer

Misericord

More windows

Rose window

Chancel area

Altarpiece, appropriately International Gothic; the Baroque stuff was removed a
century ago (Leon is about the only church we have visited where the incongruity
between Gothic and Baroque was noticed; and dealt with)

Chancel ceiling

Another rose

Side aisle

13th century Madonna and Child

Stomping on the serpents of evil

Aisle vaulting

Polychrome Mary, with child

Glorious color; neat place

Leon Cathedral: Exterior

Our next stop, wending our way generally east and south toward Figueres and then Barcelona, and then California, was Leon, the capital of Castille y Leon. Historic country, and a city we really liked for the two days we were there. Despite the heat. Best, I thought, was the cathedral, a late but very respectable Gothic, saved from collapse in the 19th century and then renovated to emphasize its origins, getting rid of most of the interior Baroque crap. The presentation, signage, a good audio tour, even a glossy cathedral magazine (cathedral porn?), only added to a great visit.

West facade

Closer up; not huge, but good sized

Nice, appropriately lurid Judgement

Thus

Even in the archivolts

Not so many funny faces in the Gothic world

Conehead: were they Goths?

Another tympanum (the third was a Mary tympanum)

Important Nativity

The whole was set apart in a large city square, large enough
to appreciate the majesty, the immensity, the centrality, etc.

The structure

And the flamboyant bits; it was even better on the inside