The Seal of Solomon of the Cathedral of Leon

Possibly the history and relevance of a city like Leon would have changed, if in the year 1168, King Ferdinand II had not decreed a detour on the original Jacobean Route, forcing pilgrims to pass through one of the most significant and important monasteries in the world. Peninsular Romanesque: San Isidoro. The monastery of San Isidoro de León -whose hospital was called, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as San Froilán -curious founder of monasteries, whose tradition is accompanied, as a bearer of knowledge, to the wolf that supposedly ate his donkey- being attended by canons and regular canonigas of San Agustín, still it conserves, practically intact, the denominated Pantheon of the Kings, the brilliance of whose paintings, cause that they are considered, with all merit, like 'the Sistine Chapel of the Spanish Romanesque'.

But before accessing San Isidoro, with its immeasurable archetypal wealth - at least what remains, where it impresses and attracts speculation, among other details, obviously, the fantastic Zodiac carved on its main portal - visitors and pilgrims had the opportunity to visit another source of beauty and monumental wisdom: the Pulchra Leonina; that is, the cathedral dedicated to the figure of Santa Maria, which in France, causally, its situation coincides with the Virgo constellation.

If, as we have said, San Isidoro de León is a complex network of archetypes, the cathedral, metaphorically speaking, could be considered as a factory of dream elements, a microcosmic scale, where they sprout like the foam of the waves in many details. One such detail, located, generally, away from the magnetic focus of attention that usually attracts all eyes, such as the covers or those original unrepeatable stained glass, would be located above the magnificent mandala-rosette that can be seen on the cover south.

There, culminating this genius leonine, which as is known, had several phases of construction in different periods, a volatile ornament is the main axis of a practically novel design, whose observation is little less than unnoticed, and shows one of the main symbols of the Hebrew religion: the Seal of Solomon.

In effect, serving the angles of the two superimposed triangles-the consummation of the opposites, the union of Heaven and Earth, or all the symbolism that accompanies the considerations on the triangles of Philo of Alexandria-as the basis for a floricular design, the anonymous stonemason not only made it look like a flower unfolding towards the sky - perhaps a lily or a rose, both linked to the Marian figure of Our Lady - but also, with great skill, camouflaged another of the symbols older and representative of this religion: the seven-branched candelabrum, also known as Menorah, whose main exponent was in Jerusalem, in the Temple of Solomon, along with other great treasures, at least until 70 AD. C., moment in which the Roman legions suffocated the Jewish rebellion, destroying good part of the city, as well as the Temple, taking all its content like booty to Rome. In this city, an engraving of this looting is still preserved with the image of the Menorah stolen from the Temple of Solomon, in the so-called Arco de Tito.

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NOTICE: revised and expanded edition of the one published in my blog TRAS LAS HUELLAS DE LOS MEDIEVALES CANTEROS. Both the text, photographs, and video (with the exception of music, reproduced under a YouTube license) are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry can be found at the following address: http://canterosmedievales.blogspot.com/2016/01/el-sello-de-salomon-de-la-catedral-de.html