Santa Maria de Arties
Santa Maria de Arties
This is undoubtedly one of the main banners of Aranese Romanesque architecture. The building has a basilica floor plan with three naves, originally headed by three apses, of which only the sides are preserved today. The central nave has a barrel vault that, due to structural pathologies, suffered a process of opening the vault that is still evident in the collapse of the pilasters. An intervention carried out in 1999 solved these dysfunctions.
It preserves two access portals, one on the south wall and the other facing north. The doorway that opens onto the north façade, without a tympanum, has six semicircular arches with voussoirs in degradation, with decorative motifs such as checkered patterns and hemispherical buttons. The door that opens to the south, which communicates with the cemetery, is configured from three semicircular arches in degradation.
At the west end there is a five-story bell tower with a pyramidal roof that, due to its mixture of Romanesque and Gothic styles, could have been built in the 13th and 14th centuries.
The imprint of the Gothic period in Santa Maria de Arties was masterfully exposed in the mural paintings represented on the ceiling of the presbytery and in the execution of an altarpiece recently restored by the Service of Conservation of Movable Property of Sant Cugat. The altarpiece, originally from the 15th century, represents different biblical scenes of the Virgin Mary and is a masterpiece of Gothic painting.
Gallery
