San Román Church

Toledo, Spain

The Iglesia de San Román is located in one of the highest and privileged places of Toledo. There is already documents of the parish in the 12th century and the church would be consecrated in 1221 by the archbishop Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada. The tradition indicates that in it was crowned king to Alfonso VIII of Castile the August 26 of 1166.

The church presents floor plan with three naves, separated by horseshoe arches with alfiz that support on pillars With Visigoth and Roman columns attached to capitels are reused from Visigothic origin in some cases, distinguishing themselves by its Corinthian leaves.

Throughout 13th century a new apse was constructed and the robust tower of Toledan Mudéjar style; In addition to being realized the murals to the fresco in Romanesque painting figurative combined with typically Mudéjar decorations. Of great beauty, these are considered the most southern of Spain. The frescoes are divided into two areas separated by inscriptions. They emphasize the four winged evangelists and the representations of archbishops, the saints Stephen and Lawrence, angels or the Final Judgment.

In the 16th century, Alonso de Covarrubias designed the apse with Plateresque dome of coffers in the main chapel; and later covered the paintings, which lost its traces until the first third of the 20th century in which these were rediscovered. It was not until the 1940s that these were recovered where possible.

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Address

Calle San Clemente 4, Toledo, Spain
See all sites in Toledo

Details

Founded: 1221
Category: Religious sites in Spain

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.7/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Toledo Cathedral (0,3 km)
Historic City of Toledo (0,4 km)
Cave of Hercules (0,2 km)
Santa Cruz Museum (0,6 km)
Iglesia de Santiago del Arrabal (0,4 km)
Puerta de Bisagra (0,4 km)
Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes (0,4 km)
Santa María la Blanca Synagogue (0,3 km)
Puerta de Bisagra Nueva (0,5 km)


Royal Palace of Aranjuez (40,8 km)
Batres Castle (40,2 km)

User Reviews

esther Nogueras Bascuñana (2 years ago)
Preciosa , recomendado si vas a venir a visitar Toledo
Salvador Moreno (2 years ago)
Se construyó en estilo mudéjar en el siglo XIII donde antes había una basílica visigótica y anteriormente un edificio romano. Tiene una estructura de tres naves cubiertas de madera, separadas entre sí por arcos de herradura sobre pilares de ladrillo a los que se adosan columnas de mármol coronadas por capiteles visigodos reaprovechados.
Edu Ruiz (2 years ago)
Es una iglesia visigoda de una belleza única en toledo, al menos de la época de la que hablamos. En el interior podemos encontrar un museo en el que están expuestos diversos objetos y réplicas de famosos tesoros, como el de Guarrazar, que son réplicas muy muy conseguidas y que son una maravilla de admirar, aunque sean solo eso, réplicas. A parte de estos, tenemos muchos objetos que son ejemplos de lo que era la sociedad en la época, el día a día... A mi personalmente me encantó la iglesia museo, pasa muy desapercibida ya que se encuentra en una zona poco transitada pero desde luego muy recomendable... la entrada es económica y gratuita para guías oficiales
Ana Isabel Rodríguez (3 years ago)
Para mi uno de los templos más bonitos de Toledo por las pinturas murales muy bien conservadas, y de los más originales de la ciudad por ello. Lo descubrí hace más de 30 años cuando casi nadie lo conocía y la entrada era gratis y siempre q voy a Toledo lo visito. Ahora está como museo.
Charlotte Richards (3 years ago)
This museum was definitely worth the 2€ admission price. There were barely any other tourists there, the staff were very nice, and the church itself was very beautiful. All of the signs were in Spanish, which wasn't the most helpful. And it was cold. But I still highly recommend it.
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Quimper Cathedral

From 1239, Raynaud, the Bishop of Quimper, decided on the building of a new chancel destined to replace that of the Romanesque era. He therefore started, in the far west, the construction of a great Gothic cathedral which would inspire cathedral reconstructions in the Ile de France and would in turn become a place of experimentation from where would later appear ideas adopted by the whole of lower Brittany. The date of 1239 marks the Bishop’s decision and does not imply an immediate start to construction. Observation of the pillar profiles, their bases, the canopies, the fitting of the ribbed vaults of the ambulatory or the alignment of the bays leads us to believe, however, that the construction was spread out over time.

The four circular pillars mark the start of the building site, but the four following adopt a lozenge-shaped layout which could indicate a change of project manager. The clumsiness of the vaulted archways of the north ambulatory, the start of the ribbed vaults at the height of the south ambulatory or the choice of the vaults descending in spoke-form from the semi-circle which allows the connection of the axis chapel to the choir – despite the manifest problems of alignment – conveys the hesitancy and diverse influences in the first phase of works which spread out until the start of the 14th century.

At the same time as this facade was built (to which were added the north and south gates) the building of the nave started in the east and would finish by 1460. The nave is made up of six bays with one at the level of the facade towers and flanked by double aisles – one wide and one narrow (split into side chapels) – in an extension of the choir arrangements.

The choir presents four right-hand bays with ambulatory and side chapels. It is extended towards the east of 3-sided chevet which opens onto a semi-circle composed of five chapels and an apsidal chapel of two bays and a flat chevet consecrated to Our Lady.

The three-level elevation with arches, triforium and galleries seems more uniform and expresses anglo-Norman influence in the thickness of the walls (Norman passageway at the gallery level) or the decorative style (heavy mouldings, decorative frieze under the triforium). This building site would have to have been overseen in one shot. Undoubtedly interrupted by the war of Succession (1341-1364) it draws to a close with the building of the lierne vaults (1410) and the fitting of stained-glass windows. Bishop Bertrand de Rosmadec and Duke Jean V, whose coat of arms would decorate these vaults, finished the chancel before starting on the building of the facade and the nave.

Isolated from its environment in the 19th century, the cathedral was – on the contrary – originally very linked to its surroundings. Its site and the orientation of the facade determined traffic flow in the town. Its positioning close to the south walls resulted in particuliarities such as the transfer of the side gates on to the north and south facades of the towers: the southern portal of Saint Catherine served the bishop’s gate and the hospital located on the left bank (the current Préfecture) and the north gate was the baptismal porch – a true parish porch with its benches and alcoves for the Apostles’ statues turned towards the town, completed by an ossuary (1514).

The west porch finds its natural place between the two towers. The entire aesthetic of these three gates springs from the Flamboyant era: trefoil, curly kale, finials, large gables which cut into the mouldings and balustrades. Pinnacles and recesses embellish the buttresses whilst an entire bestiary appears: monsters, dogs, mysterious figures, gargoyles, and with them a whole imaginary world promoting a religious and political programme. Even though most of the saints statues have disappeared an armorial survives which makes the doors of the cathedral one of the most beautiful heraldic pages imaginable: ducal ermine, the Montfort lion, Duchess Jeanne of France’s coat of arms side by side with the arms of the Cornouaille barons with their helmets and crests. One can imagine the impact of this sculpted decor with the colour and gilding which originally completed it.

At the start of the 16th century the construction of the spires was being prepared when building was interrupted, undoubtedly for financial reasons. Small conical roofs were therefore placed on top of the towers. The following centuries were essentially devoted to putting furnishings in place (funeral monuments, altars, statues, organs, pulpit). Note the fire which destroyed the spire of the transept cross in 1620 as well as the ransacking of the cathedral in 1793 when nearly all the furnishings disappeared in a « bonfire of the saints ».

The 19th century would therefore inherit an almost finished but mutilated building and would devote itself to its renovation according to the tastes and theories of the day.

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