San Pedro de la Mata

The lying in ruins church of San Pedro de la Mata ( also San Pedro de Arisgotas or San Pedro de Casal Gordo ) is one of the few buildings of the Visigothic architecture in Spain.

Location

The ruined church of San Pedro de la Mata, approximately 25 kilometers south of the former Spanish capital of Toledo in the field of community Sonseca near the village of Casal Gordo or the former Visigothic settlement Arisgotas. From Casal Gordo it is up to the church for about four kilometers to the southeast.

History

On the history of the church building, no information have survived. Nearby, however, an inscription was found, which is dated to the time of Westgotenherrschers Wamba (reigned 672-681 ). You may fell the remote construction already in the period of Islamic encroachment on the Iberian Peninsula.

Church ruins

Stone material

Unlike in most buildings from Visigothic times can be found at the Church of San Pedro de la Mata only at the corners and in the area of the entrance portal a few smooth carved stones. The construction is otherwise composed of small irregularly shaped boulders and using mortar; this indicates a plaster inside the church - and perhaps even parts of the exterior walls - close. Reliefed stones have not been found.

Architecture

Studies have shown that the construction formerly had a cross-shaped floor plan; the center of the church was probably increased by a lantern tower ( cimborrio ). Whether the remaining components were vaulted or had wooden flat ceiling or open roof trusses, is no longer to determine. Apart from some windowless wall remains of the original part only preserved is a unadorned horseshoe arches in the transept. Another portal in the area of the south transept has only one arch, which makes a later addition probably.

Importance

A cross-shaped church a significant distance away from the nearest town is indicative of a former monastery. Architecturally, there are certain similarities to the buildings erected about the same time Santa Comba de Bande and Santa María de Melque.