Santa María de Melque

Santa María de Melque is a pre-Romanesque church in the Spanish autonomous community of Castile -La Mancha. It is located about 50 km southwest of Toledo and belongs to the municipality of San Martín de Montalbán, from which they almost seven kilometers away in an abandoned place (Spanish despoblado ) is at the end of a spur road. The church is associated with the Visigothic architecture and was probably built towards the end of the 7th century. However, the period of the Church could not be detected with certainty. After years of decline, the church was the subject of art historical research at the beginning of the 20th century. 1931, the church as a cultural monument ( Monumento Nacional) was declared. Since 1968 it is owned by the Provincial de Toledo, which had carried out on the site excavations and a museum einrichtete.

History

The name is derived from the Arabic Melque balat el- melk, meaning way of the King.

Excavations in the 1970s revealed that the area had been settled Melque already in Roman times. On the site of the present church there was a Roman villa, and nearby ruins of a Roman aqueduct were discovered.

Similarly, remains of walls and five pools of an early medieval monastery were excavated, which spread over an area of ​​12 acres and was enclosed by a wall. The church was built as part of this monastery. Under Muslim rule, the monastery continued to exist. The monks were Mozarabs, that is, Christians who lived under Moorish rule. To 930 the monastery was, possibly after a fire, abandoned and the church transformed into a castle. About the cupola was erected a square watchtower ( atalaya Califal ), which is still preserved. After the Christian reconquest of Toledo in 1085 by Alfonso VI. (1065-1109) was again used as a church of Santa María de Melque. The area remained contested border region and the monastery was like a few miles away Situated Castillo de Montalbán in 12-13. Century a branch of the Knights Templar. With the progress of the Reconquista, the fortifications were gradually abandoned. In the church there is a place that existed until the 19th century, and Santa María de Melque became the destination of a pilgrimage developed. After the confiscation of Church property ( desamortización ) in the 1830s, the church was sold and used as a barn, cattle shed and drying of tobacco. Thanks to the continuous use of the building was preserved.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the art historical significance of the church was recognized by the Count of Cedillo ( Conde de Cedillo ) and examined by Manuel Gómez- Moreno Martínez appeared in his 1919 treatise Iglesias Mozárabes. He arranged to Santa María de Melque the Mozarabic architecture, while the Church in recent research - is regarded as a West Gothic building - among other things because of comparisons with other churches of the Visigothic architecture as Santa Comba de Bande. Santa María de Melque is considered one of the best preserved buildings from the early Middle Ages.

Architecture

The design, the construction of the vault and the use of large stone blocks are in the late Roman tradition, while the floor plan of a Greek cross reveals Byzantine influence. In 6/7 Century stretched from the Byzantine Empire to southern Spain. It bordered on the Spanish Visigothic kingdom, whose capital was Toldedo, and inspired its arts and culture.

Since there is no clear evidence for the formation time of Santa María de Melque, has not been established whether the church was built before or after the Moorish conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. For an assignment to the Visigothic architecture speak of the floor plan, the ( no longer existing ) vestibule at the entrance to the west and the construction in dry masonry cyclopean ashlar. The Mozarabic architectural features speak like the horseshoe-shaped apse, which is very closely closed horseshoe arches of the windows and their keystones that are larger than the other voussoirs for the emergence of the Church under Moorish rule.

Ground plan

The ground plan of the church is a Greek cross, at the trailing arm in the east horseshoe- shaped apse is added with a square outer wall. The entrance to the church is in the West. He was originally provided with a stem that is no longer preserved. Had the east-west axis with this stem has a length of about 30 meters, the north-south axis is 20 meters long. There is a rectangular space in which blind arches can still be seen, and a square chapel, on the north side - were added in later times - like the remains of a square chapel on the south side.

Exterior facade

Large granite blocks are joined together in regular layers without mortar. Oddly, the rounded corners of the exterior walls (except on the west facade). A recess, which extends as a vertical line along the curved corners, underlines its rounding and lifts them away from the outer walls, such as nine columns, similar to those on the inside. Under the umbrella approach runs an only partially preserved profiled cornice. The same profiling also have the fighters of the window. With the exception of a round-arched window, all windows and doors horseshoe arches with carefully tailored voussoirs.

The building is staggered in three heights. The apse is dominated by the longitudinal and transverse arms, in the middle of the dome of the transept rises.

Interior

The longitudinal and transverse arms of the church have a horseshoe-shaped barrel vaults, the apse is vaulted with a quarter ton. About the horseshoe-shaped transverse arches, the central dome rises with the now again restored watchtower from the time when the monastery served as a Moorish fortress. The transverse arches rest on three-quarter columns, reminiscent of the rounded corners of the outer walls. The interior walls were originally plastered, a few remnants of stucco are still on the transverse arches of the transept available. On vault approach proceeds as on the outside wall a simple profiled Fries, which continues on the fighters of the transverse arches.

There is a arcosolium, a grave niche in which probably a major figure of the Western Roman Empire was buried on the end wall of the southern branches. In the northern side chapel is a fabricated from a stone pillar altar.

Digger

At the church, carved in stone graves were discovered with human forms, which are dated to the 12th-15th centuries.