Lions with bared teeth flank a Christogram. Sculpted Romanesque tympanum over north portal of medieval former royal nunnery church of Santa Maria at Santa Cruz de la Serós in Huesca, Aragon, Spain. The church, first mentioned in the year 1070, was built for a Benedictine nunnery, founded by the royal House of Aragon as a ‘family monastery’. The tympanum also features a Latin inscription urging the faithful to enter “this blessed temple of the Virgin”.
Santa Cruz de la Serós, Huesca, Aragon, Spain: ferocious snarling lions flank Christian symbols and Latin inscriptions on the sculpted tympanum over the Romanesque west portal to the 11th century Santa María de Santa Cruz de la Serós, built as the church of a Benedictine nunnery founded by the royal House of Aragon as a “family monastery”. The inscription around the Trinitarian spoked wheel Christogram or Chrismon symbolising Jesus Christ translates: "I am the entrance door: pass through my faithful. I am the source of life: you thirst more for me than for wine, you who enter this blessed temple of the Virgin”. A second Latin inscription beneath the lions urges visitors: "Correct yourself first so that you can invoke Christ.” Santa María was first mentioned in the year 1070, although the nunnery was probably founded earlier. Some female members of the Aragonese royal family ruled it as abbesses, while others patronised it, including daughters of the first King of Aragon, Ramero I (1007-1063), who entered it as nuns. The nunnery’s domestic buildings have now vanished and the church stands alone in this small village in the Pyrenean foothills. Santa Maria is close in style to the cathedral at Jaca, the original capital and royal city of Aragon, and is one of the earliest examples of Aragonese Romanesque architecture. It was built on a Latin cross plan with a barrel-vaulted nave and a domed southern bell tower. The church has an unusual feature: an octagonal ‘secret’ chamber above the crossing with a ribbed dome-shaped vault, accessed only by a steep stairway buried in the thick south wall of the nave and entered by a small door set high in the wall. The room may once have been used by the abbess, or perhaps as a sanctuary where the nuns could hide in times of danger.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Santa Cruz de la Serós, Huesca, Aragon, Spain
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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