Spain and Her Colonies, Compiled from the Best Authorities
History
Spain and Her Colonies, Compiled from the Best Authorities
Spain -- History
Two remarkable specimens exist of the Visigothic period: the church of
San Roman de Hornija (near Toro), 646, and San Juan de Banos (near Venta
de Banos), 661. Although these churches have suffered much from later
additions, they still retain a great part of their construction and part
of the primitive building. A great number of fragments remain in Spain
of this period. They must be examined in order to judge this
architecture. Some are capitals of columns in the Cathedral of Cordova
and some churches at Toledo, and different friezes and fragments which
have been applied to different uses at Toledo and Merida. The votive
crowns found at Guarrazar, now at Cluny (Paris) and armory of Madrid,
give an excellent idea of the ornamentation of the Visigoths. Several
examples of architecture remain posterior to the Visigoths, and anterior
to the Romanesque style of the eleventh century. The most important are
the churches of Sta. Maria Naranco and St. Miguel de Lino, near Oviedo,
Sta. Christina de Lena (Asturias), a very remarkable specimen of
Byzantine construction, and the churches of San Pedro and San Pablo,
Barcelona.
The invasion of the Arabs in 711 caused their architecture to extend
itself in the Peninsula. Its adaptation to churches and other buildings
of the Christians created a new style, known as Mudejar. The finest
specimen of Oriental architecture in Spain is the mosque at Cordova
(ninth century). Byzantine models were copied there in the same manner
as at Jerusalem, Damascus, and Cairo. The small mosque at Toledo (Cristo
de la Luz) is of the same period, and part of the church of Santiago de
Peñalva (Vierzo), the only example which is known of a Christian church
built in the Moorish style.
During the eleventh and twelfth centuries this architecture underwent
radical modifications in Spain, in the same manner as in the East, and
a new style arose which is very different to the earlier one. No writers
on this subject have explained this transformation in the East in a
satisfactory manner: it is not easy to study this transition in Spain,
for it coincides with the time in which the Spanish Moors were not rich
or powerful enough to build large constructions, as they did in the
thirteenth century, after the kings of Granada had settled there. At
this period of their art the forms of capitals, which partook of a
Byzantine and classical form, changed. Tiles are used to decorate the
walls, which are covered with an ornamentation in relief in stucco, in
which are introduced inscriptions in Cufic and African characters; the
ceilings are decorated with inlaid woodwork and stalactical pendentives
in stucco. This style ends with the conquest of Granada, 1492. The
Alhambra is the most important example of this architecture, and
following it the Alcazar of Seville.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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