The Crown of Aragon and the Eastern Mediterranean

Los ábsides son la parte de la iglesia cristiana que acoge, a modo de tabernáculo, el altar donde se realizan las celebraciones litúrgicas. El presente trabajo clasifica tipológicamente los ábsides construidos en las iglesias de los diferentes territorios de la Corona de Aragón durante los siglos XIV y XV. La comparación de los tipos señala un mismo episodio arquitectónico más allá de la diversidad de los materiales empleados en su construcción y en la decoración aplicada. Por otra parte, el análisis de determinados tabernáculos, microarquitecturas y proyectos arquitectónicos permite descubrir otras intenciones artísticas más allá de las que llegaron a convertirse en realidades tangibles. Por último, se analizan las consecuencias de la recuperación de la Antigüedad bíblica –y el Salomonismo arquitectónico–en la construcción de los ábsides en la Corona de Aragón.

Apses are the part of the Christian church which contains, as a tabernacle, the altar, where the liturgical celebrations are performed. This paper organizes from a typological point of view the apses which were built in the different territories of the Crown of Aragon during the 14th and 15th centuries. The comparison between the types reveals the same architectural reality in spite of the variety of the materials used in their construction and in spite of their decoration. On the other hand, the analysis of some tabernacles, micro-architectures and architectural projects allows us to discover other artistic intentions besides the ones which materialized in buildings. Finally, we analyse the consequences of the recovery of the Biblical Antiquity –and the architectural Solomonism– on the construction of apses in the Crown of Aragon.

The study of the apses built in different areas of the
Kingdom of Aragon in the period between the 14th and
15th centuries requires contemplating a broad
geographical context in the north-western part of the
Mediterranean in which the development of polygonal
shapes was preferred over the semicircular forms of
the previous period. These apses present very sturdy
elevations whose composition and appearance seem to
depend more on the interplay of light and shadow –
and the impressiveness of the buildings – rather than
on the articulated Gothic interplay of tracery,
buttresses and flying buttresses typical of France,
whose style was nevertheless borrowed. Various types
of apsidal terminations are examined in this study. The
first part of the study identifies, through a large number
of examples, the apses that were built. The aisleless
church with diaphragm arches used in areas that were
conquered and repopulated, and later spread in the
rest of the kingdom could be terminated to the east
with a flat wall or with polygonal apses with five or
seven sides covered with groin vaults. This solution was
used with a certain frequency for the churches of
mendicant orders, whose founding statutes initially
comprised a prohibition to cover their churches with
vaults, save for the apse. The examples considered
include radial chapels, a model also used in aisleless
churches. It is the one that, with the use of a regular
semi-decagonal geometry in the perimeter of the head,
extended with straight segments, allowed the
construction of five or seven chapels around the
presbytery (apse of the parish church of El Salvador in
Burriana, Castellón). An identical geometry, though
with seven radial chapels and a quadrangular plan
covered with simple groin vaults, was used to build
several churches in Aragon and in Catalonia, the
former in bricks and the latter in stone (Church of San
Pedro, Teruel; Church of Santiago, Montalbán).
Similarly, some churches of mendicant orders were
concluded with various radial chapels at the head. It
should be pointed out that even in the north of the
province of Valencia, starting from the second half of
the 14th century, experiments were made terminating
the nave with radial chapels. Then there is the model
with parallel chapels. The model of a basilica plan with
nave and two aisles and three apses, so common in
Romanesque architecture, was kept in Gothic
architecture, only that the semicircular apses, generally
covered by semi-domes, gave way to polygonal or
quadrangular solutions placed in parallel, covered with
simple groin vaults (Church of Santa Maria in Morella,
Castellón), and also designed to open on wide open
spaces with a single aisle covered with a wooden roof
and vaults. The model of church with nave and two
aisles, with presbytery and ambulatory allowed creating
more than seven chapels at the head, because, besides
the main altar, it was possible to build another eight or
nine oratories around the ambulatory, of which the
first example is Valencia Cathedral, followed by that of Santa Caterina, it too in Valencia, and the Church of
Santa Maria in Cervera (Lleida). Soon other solutions
came for the head with ambulatory that, despite having
its origins in the north of France, was adapted without
major differences from the conditions and traditions of
the Mediterranean context. Therefore, for example,
the plans of the heads of the great Catalan Gothic
churches were defined starting from the geometry of
the heptagon, and these were generally built gradually
replacing old Romanesque edifices, starting from the
head, in order to continue to use the old buildings until
the new ones were could be used. This procedure is
perfectly understandable if you look at the exemplary
case of the Cathedral of Elne. A large variety of
designed or ideal apses are the subject of the second
part of the study in the belief that in addition to
architectural realities, any attempt at systematizing also
requires contemplating concepts shaped, since very
early on, in various drawings and plans, as well as in
some elements of a micro-architectural nature. Among
the various types described are: the solution shown in
the graffiti in the tower of the Collegiate Church of
Alcañiz; the quadrangular-central plan solution with
cubic development and vault with thirteen keystones
reproduced in the tabernacle that covers the “Virgin
of the Epiphany” of the cloister of the Cathedral of
Pamplona; the solution proposed in the tabernacle that
protects the statue of the Virgin Mary in the tympanum
of the doorway of the Apostles of Huesca Cathedral,
indeed constituting a daring miniature architectural
plan; other models refer to the recovery of biblical
antiquities (Solomon’s Temple) and other significant
examples of cubic presbyteries that were very popular
in the lands of the territories of the Crown of Aragon,
such as the kingdom of Valencia (collegiate church of
Gandia, Sant Jeroni de Cotalba, parish church of Jávea,
old church of Coves de Vinromà, Sanctuary of our Lady
of Virtue in Villena) or Sardinia (Cathedral of Iglesias,
parish churches of Santa Eulalia, San Giacomo, Santa
Lucia and of the Purissima in Cagliari, the churches of
San Giorgio in Sestu and San Pietro in Settimo San
Pietro).