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EL PANTEÓN REAL
El Panteón de los Reyes, localizado en la
Real
Colegiata de San Isidoro de León, está considerado
como la obra cumbre de la pintura románica en España
y uno de los monumentos más importantes del arte mundial. Se
trata de una cripta sepulcral que contiene los restos mortales de
40
reyes, reinas y príncipes de León. Durante la invasión
francesa las tropas de Napoleón intentaron llevarse todos los
sarcófagos para Francia por lo que sólo cinco tumbas
permanecen hoy en día.
El gran tesoro de del Panteón Real está en los frescos
de sus bóvedas y muros por los que se ha llegado a considerar
este espacio como la "Capilla Sixtina" del Arte Románico
mundial, y que aun conservan sus colores originales. Estos frescos
fueron pintados en el siglo XII por un artista francés de nombre
desconocido, y son el mejor ejemplo de la pintura románica
en España. Muestran diversas escenas de la vida de Cristo:
Nacimiento, la matanza infantil de Herodes, un magnífico Pantocrátor
rodeado por los cuatro evangelistas, el Apocalipsis, las puertas del
paraíso, la última cena, la crucifixión... Destaca
en uno de sus arcos la representación de un Mensario
-calendario de meses- de gran belleza.
Fresco de la Matanza de los
inocentes
THE ROYAL PANTHEON
The Royal Pantheon (Panteón de los Reyes)
located at the Royal Collegiate
Church of San Isidoro (Real Colegiata de San Isidoro) is considered
a masterpiece of the Romanesque
Art not only in Spain but anywhere. It is a burial place of 40 kings,
queens and princes of León,
and the tombs are numbered and catalogued. Napoleon’s troops
when they were going through Spain, tried to carry all the sarcophagi
with them, only five tombs remain to this day.
The largest treasure of the Royal Pantheon are the Romanesque frescoes
on the walls and ceiling that have not been restored since their creation
and are considered more precious than the frescoes of the Sistine
chapel and still have their original bright colors. These frescoes
were painted in the 12th century by a French artist whose name is
unknown, and are the best example of Romanesque paintings in Spain.
They show the circle of life of Christ: his birth, King Herod’s
massacre of innocents, Christ is surrounded by evangelists with cow’s
heads, the last supper, apocalypse, gates of paradise, crucifixion.
One of the arches is painted with a yearly
calendar.
The original Church was built in the pre-Arab period over the ruins
of a temple to the Roman god Mercury. In the 10th century, the kings
of León
established a community of Benedictine sisters on the site.
Following the conquest of the area by Al-Mansur
Ibn Abi Aamir, known to the Spanish as Al-Manzor, (938-1002),
the first church was destroyed and the area devastated. León
was repopulated and a new church and monastery established in the
11th century by Alfonso
V of Leon.
Alfonso's daughter, the infanta Sancha
of Leon, married Ferdinand,
Count of Castile. Sancha's Brother, Bermudo III, declared the war
against Castile and Castilian troops, with the help of Navarra, killed
the Leonese king, becoming Fernando I King of León. The church
also benefited from its position on the famous pilgrimage route to
Santiago
de Compostella. Sculptors, stonemasons and artists from across
Europe gathered to work on the monastery.
Queen Sancha chose the new monastery as the
site of the royal burial chapel. Today eleven kings, numerous queens
and many nobles lie interred beneath the polychrome vaults of the
medieval "royal pantheon." In 1063 the relics of Saint
Isidore were transferred to the chapel, and a community of canons
was established to maintain the monastery and ward the relics.
This funeral chapel of the kings
of León is one of the outstanding examples of surviving
Romanesque
art in León. The columns are crowned with rare Visigothic
capitals, with floral or historic designs. The 12th century painted
murals are in an exceptional state of preservation and consist of
an ensemble of New Testament subjects along with scenes of contemporary
rural life.
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