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Abstract
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries western France and northern Spain were dotted with churches that shared a portal configuration comprised of a set of concentric, inwardly stepped archivolts, surrounding a tympanum-less entry. Developed in the early stages of the Reconquest, the form was a visual compression of the segmented barrel vaults of the nave, producing a porch-like space that served to prolong the act of entry and define a liminal zone where the journey from the external, secular world into the interior sacred space replicated on a micro level the macro tenants of pilgrimage. Described as a sequenced and layered experience that is both 'betwixt and between', both micro and macro journeys were meant to engender a metaphysical transition, if not a spiritual transformation. Used to define the parameters of a monastic domain, these parishes were linked to the abbey by way of circular processions that began and ended at the similarly archivolted portal of the monastic chapel. The stage-like podium of this configuration provided a dramatic backdrop for liturgical ritual, while the intra-parish movement multiplied its emotional effect in the same way the miraculous events of a pilgrimage were meant to build to a climactic event and inspire spiritual revelation.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries western France and northern Spain were dotted with churches that shared a portal configuration comprised of a set of concentric, inwardly stepped archivolts, surrounding a tympanum-less entry. Developed in the early stages of the Reconquest, the form was a visual compression of the segmented barrel vaults of the nave, producing a porch-like space that served to prolong the act of entry and define a liminal zone where the journey from the external, secular world into the interior sacred space replicated on a micro level the macro tenants of pilgrimage. Described as a sequenced and layered experience that is both 'betwixt and between', both micro and macro journeys were meant to engender a metaphysical transition, if not a spiritual transformation. Used to define the parameters of a monastic domain, these parishes were linked to the abbey by way of circular processions that began and ended at the similarly archivolted portal of the monastic chapel. The stage-like podium of this configuration provided a dramatic backdrop for liturgical ritual, while the intra-parish movement multiplied its emotional effect in the same way the miraculous events of a pilgrimage were meant to build to a climactic event and inspire spiritual revelation.
En los siglos xi y xii, el oeste de Francia y el norte de España estaban dotados con iglesias que tenían en común una configuración de portales compuesta por un grupo de archivoltados concéntricos e interiormente escalados, que rodeaban una entrada sin tímpano. Creadas en los días tempranos de la Reconquista, estas formas eran una síntesis visual de las segmentadas bóvedas de medio cañón de la nave, produciendo un espacio parecido a un pórtico que servía para prolongar el acto de entrada y así definir una zona liminal en donde la jornada iniciada desde el mundo externo y secular hacia el sagrado espacio interior repetía en tamaño menor los principios más importantes de las peregrinaciones. Descrita como una experiencia secuencial y estratificada, que no es 'ni lo uno ni lo otro', ambas travesías, la menor y la mayor, tenían como fin generar por un lado una transición metafísica, y por otro una transformación espiritual. Empleadas para definir los parámetros de un dominio monástico, estas parroquias estaban conectadas con la abadía por medio de procesiones circulares que comenzaban y terminaban en el correspondiente portal arquivoltado de la capilla monástica. El carácter cuasi teatral del podio con esta configuración le otorgaba una atmósfera dramática al ritual litúrgico, mientras que el movimiento intraparroquias aumentaba su efecto emocional de la misma manera en que los eventos milagrosos de las peregrinaciones pretendían crear un evento culminante que inspirara la revelación espiritual.