San Miguel de Escalada
Type:
Churches
Date:
913
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Spain
Description:
The abbey church of San Miguel de Escalada was consecrated in 913 on the site of an earlier monastery that had been abandoned. It is associated with the patronage of an abbot named Alfonso, who came from Córdoba with a group of monks to the newly founded Kingdom of León. Like many other Christians in al-Andalus, they travelled north and resettled in the reconquered lands. This church is the earliest example of what is sometimes called "repopulation architecture," and some of its features show the desire of its patrons to evoke the Visigothic past. Spoliated marble columns and horseshoe arches divide the nave into three aisles, and the east end has three apses (the tripartite structure can also be seen in the Visigothic church of San Juan Bautista). Between the choir and the nave (the area intended for the congregation), there is a high screen with three horseshoe arches. This screen would have been filled with curtains and ornamental screens to keep the two spaces separate. The surviving screens are carved in low relief with geometric and vegetal ornament as well as birds and other animals.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
5
Image Credits:
Wikimedia Commons
