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Artaiz, more about Romanesque in Navarra, Spain

Let’s supose you’re in Pamplona, you’ve visited the museums You’ve gone to the Baluarte Theater, so how about going for a walk and discovering pleasant surroundings?
Today let’s go to the village of Artaiz (you may also  see it written Artaitz) 15 minutes by car from Pamplona, and then.. you get lost in the middle of the beauty of Unciti valley, take the way to Artaiz and you come across the small but surprising church of St. Martin.
Artaiz

Here you have a very interesting website with all the information about it at www.arquivoltas.com.  (look for Artiz) Only in Spanish, I’m sorry… but at least you can look for more pictures.

 

During our excursion everybody was surprised with the façade and its sculptures with animals, such as dogs, or harpys, puzzling faces, stories from the Gospel, like a representation of the parable of the rich Epulon and poor Lazarus, symbols of lasciviousness and so on

 

Artaiz Capiteles

It is s konwn that there were more than one artist working at that church. Did they want to tell a full history with the images? Experts in medieval art of this area say no. In fact, they say artists did not always want to tell something, not everything has special meanings, some times artists want to decorate with a kind of innovation from some basics works they alredy knew and had done before. Just try a bit decoration, and no more.

Experts have to carry on with their investigations and go ahead with our trip. What the heck is a girl doing with a bottle of champange? She won a prize!

artaiz-20

I asked the students to look for an old Romasnesque tank close to the church of St. Martin. Irati was the first one to discover where the tank was, then everybody went there, but she won the champagne! All in all, everyone had a lot of fun!
It was a nice December day, and we were able to enjoy the landscape walking around the village. If you can come, do it, and discover the beauty of the Romanesque in the middle  of the countryside of the  region of Navarra.

 

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