España romanica: San Estebán Protomartir in Pineda de la Sierra
Nor far from Jaramillo de la Fuente where we were before, Pineda de la Sierra lies not in the plain but, as the name indicates, in the mountains that snake through the northern Castille and León, east of the city of Burgos. The altitude in the village is higher than 2,000 meters above sea level.
The main attraction in Pineda is its Romanesque church, dedicated to Saint Stephen Protomartyr, as Stephen is regarded in the Scripture as the first Christian martyr, having been lapidated by the judges of the high religious court of the Sanhedrin because he said out loud the name of God, which all were forbidden from uttering in the Jewish religion. Before that, Stephen had been a specialist of the Greek language and one of the seven deacons chosen to assist the Apostles.
The church In Pineda was built in typical red sandstone during the early to mid–1100s, to the exception of the last, westernmost row of the nave and the bell tower, which were added during the 1500s. It offers one of the finest examples of a gallery-porch that has reached us almost entirely intact. Five arches on one side, six on the other: the lack of symmetry may look shocking to our modern-day eyes, but was not at all considered a problem, or even a topic of discussion, in the Middle Ages.
It is a fine and harmonious example of Castillan Romanesque which I once again couldn’t but regret to find closed.
This masterpiece of Castillan Romanesque stands proudly in the center of a quiet village square, in a setting probably not very different from the one it had in the Middle Ages.
It is easy to ignore the few surrounding houses as they do not crowd the church, which is free to offer us its proportions and perspectives.
España romanica: San Estebán Protomartir in Pineda de la Sierra
Nor far from Jaramillo de la Fuente where we were before, Pineda de la Sierra lies not in the plain but, as the name indicates, in the mountains that snake through the northern Castille and León, east of the city of Burgos. The altitude in the village is higher than 2,000 meters above sea level.
The main attraction in Pineda is its Romanesque church, dedicated to Saint Stephen Protomartyr, as Stephen is regarded in the Scripture as the first Christian martyr, having been lapidated by the judges of the high religious court of the Sanhedrin because he said out loud the name of God, which all were forbidden from uttering in the Jewish religion. Before that, Stephen had been a specialist of the Greek language and one of the seven deacons chosen to assist the Apostles.
The church In Pineda was built in typical red sandstone during the early to mid–1100s, to the exception of the last, westernmost row of the nave and the bell tower, which were added during the 1500s. It offers one of the finest examples of a gallery-porch that has reached us almost entirely intact. Five arches on one side, six on the other: the lack of symmetry may look shocking to our modern-day eyes, but was not at all considered a problem, or even a topic of discussion, in the Middle Ages.
It is a fine and harmonious example of Castillan Romanesque which I once again couldn’t but regret to find closed.
This masterpiece of Castillan Romanesque stands proudly in the center of a quiet village square, in a setting probably not very different from the one it had in the Middle Ages.
It is easy to ignore the few surrounding houses as they do not crowd the church, which is free to offer us its proportions and perspectives.