Romanesque church of Sant Joan de Boí, in the Vall de Boí, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. The church was built in the 1000s by the Lords of Erill using war booty.
Vall de Boí, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain: Romanesque church of Sant Joan de Boí, built in the 1000s to a Roman basilica plan ( to a rectangular plan, not the cross plan typical of a Gothic church). Sant Joan de Boí’s stout square campanile, with its storeys of mullioned windows in a style imported from Lombardy, was re-modelled in the 1100s. Vall de Boí lies in the Pyrenees in north-eastern Spain, on the edge of the Parc Nacional d’Aigüestortes. The Moors did not reach the high valleys of the Pyrenees and from the 800s AD land in this area was organised into counties that were in theory subservient to Frankish overlords. However, in the 900s, the counties distanced themselves from the Carolingian Empire and eventually achieved political and religious independence. At the end of the 1000s, feudal lords in the Vall de Boí, the Lords of Erill, took part with Alfonso the Warrior, King of Aragon, in campaigns to reconquer land, including Zaragoza (1118). The Lords of Erill then used resources from war booty to promote the building of churches. As a result, Vall de Boí has a high concentration of Romanesque churches and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Size: 4162px × 2769px
Location: church of Sant Joan de Boí, Vall de Boí, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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