Religious architecture during the Romanesque period in Catalonia(11th-13th centuries): Assessment and critical notes

Abstract

In Catalonia, the historiography of the Romanesque started a full half-century later than the earliest European move- ments, particularly in France. This historiography manifested itself with studies that helped to understand, classify and compare the movement to other architectures, with restoration and the protection of monuments, as well as with new architectures that harked back to the mediaeval past. Elies Rogent (1821-1897), Lluis Domenech i Montaner (1850-1923) and Josep Puig i Cadafalch (1867-1956) were the pioneers in these studies. This article considers the most pressing issues today and takes part in the current debates on Catalan religious Romanesque architecture. The complex containing the former church see in Egara, now Terrassa, which was recently excavated, is a prime example. The article shall also analyse the issue of the earliest Romanesque art in the 11th century, compare the monastic churches in Ripoll and Cuixa, present new studies on the cathedrals in La Seu d'Urgell, Girona and Vic, and consider interesting problems involving architecture and liturgy, the still undefined transition from the 11th to 13th century and the late Romanesque-style architecture from the 12th to 13th centuries, when Gothic architecture had already taken root in northern France.