22 May 2012
Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series
ARCHITECTURE AND ART IN NAVARRA AT THE TIME OF NAVAS DE TOLOSA
Santa María de Roncesvalles and the reception of Parisian Gothic architecture
Mr Javier Martínez de Aguirre.
Complutense University of Madrid
In 1127, Abbot Suger initiated the reform of the regime of the abbey of Saint-Denis, very close to Paris, which would be followed by a material renovation of the old pre-Romanesque temple on its western façade and in the chancel consecrated in 1144. Its architect designed a double ambulatory covered with ribbed vaults, which made it possible to open large windows in the perimeter wall. The historiography has been affirming that this project was the work core topic for the development of the Gothic constructive forms.
Throughout the second half of the twelfth century, the new architectural methods made it possible to undertake projects of great dimensions and beauty, such as the cathedral of Laon and, of particular interest here, Notre Dame de Paris. The enormous height, the elevation of the nave on four levels (arch, tribune, rose window and window), the cylindrical supports on which support shafts designed for perpendicular arches and sexpartite vaults, and the flying buttresses were other elements that constituted a large issue of parish churches derived from the Parisian model .
That same year, 1127, the foundational process of the hospital of Roncesvalles was initiated. The new institution was destined to attend to the pilgrims who crossed the Pyrenees on their way to Compostela and was at position a canonical one under the rule of St. Augustine. In the second half of the 12th century they built the large hospital called La Caritat, with its two rooms for pilgrims and its chapel.
The reception of the new Gothic architecture in the Iberian Peninsula followed the guidelines of the time. Architects and promoters did not copy the French references to the letter, but introduced more or less successful variants, as we see in the cathedral of Avila, where we can recognize the following of the plan of Saint Denis, but whose elevation was resolved by means of a novel formula also tested in the Burgundian abbey of Vézelay.
In the early years of the 13th century, under the reign and with the direct partnership of Sancho VII the Strong, as attested by contemporary sources, construction began in Roncesvalles of a large church dedicated to Saint Mary, where the community of canons could worship Saint Mary. A French architect was contracted, most probably with a team of stonemasons of the same origin, who introduced the new construction paradigms into the kingdom of Navarre and built a temple similar to those that could be seen in the environs of Paris in those years. As Torres Balbás studied, the plan derives very directly from the Parisian cathedral itself. The three-story elevation (arch, triforium and rose window), the sexpartite vaults, the alternating supports and the flying buttresses are other hallmarks of the Ile-de-France Gothic style present in the Pyrenean church. The project included some novelties derived from the implantation in very specific conditions, such as the presence of a crypt that still preserves the valuable pictorial mural covering.
Church of Santa María de Roncesvalles. Exterior view of the chancel