Art and Mystery in Zamora: the church of Santiago de los Caballeros

The Zamorans speak proudly of the immense treasure of Romanesque art they possess, to the point of considering their capital, Zamora, as a Romanesque city par excellence.

Far from entering into controversies about which is the Spanish community that has the best and most elaborate examples of this art that was already considered as the art par excellence of Christianity in the Middle Ages, I think it is interesting to show some examples and that the reader, becoming judge and party, judge to your liking and convenience.

Outside the old walls and on the right bank of a bridge of medieval origins too, which rising over the Douro River separates the capital from those infinite fields that point towards the Vía de la Plata or more exactly, towards the long-awaited pastures of Extremadura and the delicious and melancholic fados of Portugal, the restless traveler can find one of the most humble churches, but at the same time and as paradoxical as it may seem, one of the most mysterious and interesting of the whole monumental complex of this historic city: the church of Santiago of the Knights.

This church, whose humble and purely rural aspect, devoid of sculptural reviews on its exterior, can induce the error of seeking little or no interest in the viewer, especially when compared with the sculptural wealth and the constitution of the neighboring church of San Claudio de Olivares, located a few meters away, also on this right bank of the Douro riverbank.

And yet, the surprise awaits everyone who, having the opportunity to find it open, think of the curious and aberrant capitals inside, and the subhuman message that contains, where rude representations of an orgiastic nature, induce him to think what they really paint there and what was the real message of those mysterious stonemasons, who left their mark and part of a way of thinking, along the roads.

In addition, and this is also part of the History and the legend, in this humble hermitage, located outside the walls and almost in front of the proud cathedral, the future knights were armed and in it they watched weapons, to the point, that,

Apparently, here also knight was armed to that authentic myth of our universal history: Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Cid Campeador.

NOTICE: Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property.