Ianua Coeli: Monumental Romanesque doorways on the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Studying monumental Romanesque doorways was the theme of the international congress organised by the Amics de l’Art Romànic (Friends of Romanesque Art), an affiliate of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. The congress was held last November in Barcelona at the IEC headquarters and in Ripoll, which hosted the closing event and where the participants were treated to the superb facade of the monastery. For the first time in Spain, the scientific gathering aimed to study the large doorways that emerged in the Christian territories in the west and east of the Iberian Peninsula in the 12th century and the early years of the 13th century. The Romanesque visually translated the symbolic value that Christianity attributed to its buildings of worship and certain sectors and elements that represent them, one of which is the entrance doorway. Repeatedly glossed in texts as the doorway to heaven, Ianua Coeli, the iconographic programmes and liturgical uses linked to this threshold between the sacred and profane underscore this dimension. The congress wanted to examine this issue from different, mutually complementary vantage points: by analysing the iconographic programmes derived from the Romanesque doorway and the intentions of its promoters, the style of its sculpture and the connections derived from it, the uniqueness of the typology adopted and the liturgical functions it accommodated. The goal was for the expert debate to shed light on all of these issues, addressed generally for the first time at this congress, and at the same time open up the session to university students and amateurs. The congress was a huge success. It attracted around 100 people including speakers and participants, including students from a number of universities in Spain, Germany, England, France and Italy. The sessions were officially opened by Salvador Giner, President of the IEC, Daniel Solé, Deputy General Director of the Generalitat de Catalunya’s department of Cultural Heritage, and Francesca Español, President of Amics de l’Art Romànic and scientific director of the congress. Prestigious Hispanists were on hand for the lectures. Dr Peter Klein, Professor at the Universität Tübingen,