Romanesque of Cantabria

The tenth century began an economic awakening in medieval Europe, which gives rise to the first international art: the Romanesque. The success of this trend came largely from the expansion of the hand of the Cluniac order and the pilgrimages that spread its peculiarities.

In contrast to other later artistic trends much more “urban”, the Romanesque art in general, and its architecture in particular, was developed primarily in the rural world, having its most important manifestation in monastic buildings. At this time the monasteries had a multifunctional function, were religious, cultural and agricultural productivity centers, all within the feudal context of the moment.

Its characteristics in the architecture were the use of the semicircular arch and the barrel and ridge vaults. Likewise, large and heavy walls were required, with only spans, that could support the weight of these vaults, all reinforced with thick buttresses on the outside. Associated with the architecture and finishing off the building, there were examples of sculptures of rough and popular carvings in cloisters, portals, capitals and corbels.

Due to the reasons for influence in matters of politics and economy of Castile, stylistically speaking the Romanesque mountain was related to that of Burgos and Palencia, although that did not reach the quality of these except in isolated cases. Its Cantabrian chronology covers the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but in the most remote territories, far from the places of passage, it would still extend until the fourteenth century.

The geographical distribution of the Romanesque architecture in Cantabria is lax and diverse, being able to group in areas by aesthetic similarity, such as the Romanesque of the valleys of Campo and Valderredible, the one of the basin of the Besaya, the one of Liébana or that of the coast. Among the most representative buildings are the Collegiate Church of Santillana, Castañeda, Cervatos and Elines, the churches of Piascas, Bareyo, Silió and Yermo.

Cantabrian Romanesque or Cantabrian Romanesque are different bibliographical designations for a subdivision of Romanesque art in a territory whose geographical, historical and cultural homogeneity has allowed to identify its own stylistic features, although they are largely coincident with those of the Castilian Romanesque or those of the Asturian Romanesque. Territorially coincides with the current autonomous community of Cantabria, which at the time (11th and 12th centuries) was part of the political entity first called the county and then the kingdom of Castile, and that during the Old Regime was known under the names of ” Asturias de Santillana ” or ” Montaña de Burgos “.

For some sources, the Romanesque of the area in front of the other, is characterized by its “poverty” and “modest” in their workrooms, which is reflected in the imagery represented only by a small number of images of the Crucified and of the Virgin, already of century XIII ».

In the absence of a diocese itself (belonged to the diocese of Burgos), the main ecclesiastical institutions were the monasteries (Santa María de Puerto de Santoña, Santo Toribio de Liebana) and colegiatas: Abbey of the Holy Bodies (subsequently transformed collegiate church and finally in the current cathedral of Santander), collegiate church of San Martín de Elines, collegiate church of Cervatos, collegiate church of Santillana del Mar and collegiate church of Castañeda. “The five collegiate churches of Cantabria are distinctly different from each other, despite being built between the last third of the 11th century and the middle of the 12th.” “Both colleges have their own values that attribute to one or the other the supremacy of Romanesque art in the province of Santander. Santillana excels in its interior elegance… in Castañeda there is more robustness. ” Throughout the territory, both in the period of full Romanesque and in that of the late Romanesque of the thirteenth century, concejil churches of strong personality and remarkable quality were erected. its stonework (ashlars, arches, carving of the capitals and sculptural decoration), with different characteristics according to the areas (Campoo, Valderrible, Valdeola, Liébana, Besaya, Pasiegos valleys, coast, etc.)

Until relatively recently, studies on the area were scarce. Still in 1975, the art historian Juan José Martín González indicated that lack, except for the work of the main local scholar: “There is no joint monograph on Romanesque in the province of Santander. In the Simón Cabarga guide (Santander and its province, 1965) the bibliography is lacking ». Since the end of the 20th century and in the 21st century, these deficiencies have been compensated by the initiative of researchers such as Miguel Ángel García Guinea, and the development of projects such as the Romanesque Interpretation Center in Cantabria in the church of Santa María the Major (Villacantid)or the so-called ” Romanesque Country “.

Source from Wikipedia