GLÈISA DE SANT PÈIR

The appeal of the church of Sant Pèir can be found, above all, in architectural and sculptural elements that bear witness to its Romanesque past: the configuration of the nave, the portal and the baptismal font. Of the Romanesque architecture of the nave, all that remains is the stonework and the semicircular vault. The portal of Sant Pèir de Escunhau, the church’s most interesting artwork, alongside its baptismal font, is structured around three concentric arches and two archivolts supported by columns.
 
In the centre of the tympanum we find a carved figure Christ, whose lines recall the sculptures preserved in the narthexes of Sant Miquèu de Vielha and Sant Martin de Gausac. The rest of the portal is decorated with several sculptural elements: the capitals with their anthropomorphic figures; a chequered pattern that is a common decorative motif in Aranese churches; and the lintel, which crowns the architectural structure of the portal, made up of a Chrismon flanked by two eight-pointed stars. The baptismal font features sculptural iconography that connects it to the baptismal fonts of Gausac and even of Casau. Its ornamentation mixes plant motifs and geometrical patterns, with strongly symbolic figurative elements: the designs are very linear, and the work could be dated to the 12th and 13th centuries. The influence of the Gothic period’s influence can be seen in the church’s internal structure, supported on ribs and ribbed vaults, as well as in the exterior window, located in the south wall. Between the 17th and 18th centuries, the current bell tower was added.

 

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