Church of Sant Vicenç

Sant Vicenç de Cardona is a Romanesque collegiate church in the Spanish town of Cardona.

It is the most important historical part of the fortress of Cardona - Marcel Durliat calls it " the most important building of the Premier art roman méridional ' in Catalonia " (p. 542). Your construction is dated to 1020-40 ( October 23, 1040 consecrated ). The first falls into this church on their utter plainness. All wall surfaces are untreated stone. This is the result of an assessment made only recently thorough restoration.

The aisles are extremely narrow and high. The 18.80 -meter-high central nave of the basilica is covered by a barrel vault on webbing. He owes the church their high art-historical importance. The nave intersects the barely protruding transept in a " retired crossing " (see Article Pre-Romanesque ). The considerably higher middle of the three apses has a Vorchor with inner niche structure. The exterior shows only a simple Lisenengliederung.

Importance of the church for the development of vaulting

In the second half of the 11th century, the vault is widespread in many parts of Europe. In Burgundy and northern Spain here the beginnings seem to lie. In the antechurch of St. Philibert in Tournus in Burgundy the earliest still standing curved in all parts of plant exists. Before - before the turn of the millennium - there was only vault in smaller plants. Only now - at the beginning of the 11th century - one ventured to bulge all parts and a bigger church.

Here in Cardona can study the conditions that were necessary for the development of larger vault. First, the window openings and the members of the support system had to be coordinated in their axes. Only in this way could make wall openings, which allowed both adequate exposure as well as the design of supporting elements for the new solid stone vault ( belts).

The result was that the room was growing rhythm of the supporting architectural elements at the same distance. The services and the originals were in a novel manner laid on the walls ( " taut vertical tracks "). It starts a development that leads to the pier no longer a part of the wall, but is isolated, which will increase in the Gothic style to the basic design principle. The piers between the middle and aisle here in Cardona demonstrate the first clear step in this direction. They are composed of a core ( wall residue) and stepped templates on all four sides, which both go up to the vaults of central and side nave, as well as beams to the adjacent pillar. They act with a diameter of 2.5 meters, still very solid.

Unusual and characteristic of the experimental early stage of this church is to each other the ratio of Gewölbejoche the ships. Three Gewölbejoche in the aisles come to only one Mittelschiffjoch. " Extreme opposites, conciseness and sleek upgrades are united here, Romanesque architecture has its valid form found "

To capture the vault pressure outside reinforcements in the form of niche subdivisions were added. The dome of the excreted crossing rests on four squinches that are still low and awkwardly punctuated by a few narrow openings.

Construction activity faltered, as clearly some stone layers to detect above the Scheid arcade. It dates this construction was halted in the year 1040, when the founder died.

The blind niches in the interior are of Roman origin, ie mediated by Italy.