Church of Saint Mary of Eunate
Encyclopedia
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
church located about 2 km south-east of Muruzábal
Muruzábal
Muruzabal is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain.-External links:*...
, Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, on the Way of Saint James. Its origins are discussed due to lack of documentation. Its octagonal plan and the fact that it is not located in a present-day village or town but in the countryside contribute to its enigmatic nature.
The church is built of dressed stone
Stonemasonry
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilization - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts, cathedrals, and cities in a wide variety of cultures...
and its plan is a slightly irregular octagon with a little three-side apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
. It presents the typical architectural features of the European Romanesque art (dressed-stone masonry, robust walls, semicircular arch
Arch
An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...
es, little windows made of alabaster
Alabaster
Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals, when used as a material: gypsum and calcite . The former is the alabaster of the present day; generally, the latter is the alabaster of the ancients...
, etc.) as well as some other local Romanesque characteristics like the chessboard-shape decoration in Navarre and Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
.
Its eight walls sustain an eight-rib vault, inspired in Cordova's caliphate
Moorish architecture
Moorish architecture is the western term used to describe the articulated Berber-Islamic architecture of North Africa and Al-Andalus.-Characteristic elements:...
art. This structure is very similar to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Torres del Río
Torres Del Río
Torres del Río is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain.This town is located by the Linares River opposite Sansol. It is known for its Templar octagonal Romanesque church, formally related to those of Segovia and Eunate.-External...
, Navarre, 55 km far from Eunate and also on the Way of Saint James. The whole building is surrounded by arches that seem to have been partially reconstructed more recent than the original construction of the church. They may have been built centuries later using rests of a hypothetical now disappeared cloister
Cloister
A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...
.
The church is a hermitage
Hermitage (religious retreat)
Although today's meaning is usually a place where a hermit lives in seclusion from the world, hermitage was more commonly used to mean a settlement where a person or a group of people lived religiously, in seclusion.-Western Christian Tradition:...
dedicated to the Virgin Mary and people from all of the Valdizarbe valley celebrate a traditional romería
Romeria
A Romería in Spanish or "Romaria" in Portuguese is a religious pilgrimage. The word "Romería"/"Romaria" comes from "romero"/"romeiro", meaning those travelling towards Rome. It is a Catholic celebration that consists of a trip or peregrination that ends at a sanctuary or hermitage...
there. This function is the only unquestioned known use of the building as it is the only one that is documented. The early documented reference to Eunate dates from 1487 and refers to a sodality
Sodality (Catholic Church)
A sodality, also known as a "union of prayer" or "confraternity", is an older designation for a lay ecclesial movement or organization in the Roman Catholic Church....
devoted to the Virgin of Eunate. Nevertheless, the characteristics of the building, its location on the Way of Saint James and the comparison with other coetaneous religious buildings demands further explanation about the origin of the church.
Since the late 19th century, there have been several theories about the original function and authorship of Eunate. Due to its octagonal plan, the first theories stated that Eunate was a Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
church, related to other central plan churches like the above mentioned Holy Sepulchre of Torres del Río, and other undoubtedly Templar buildings like the Templar convent of Tomar
Convent of the Order of Christ
The Convent of the Order of Christ is a religious building and Roman Catholic building in Tomar, Portugal, originally a Templar stronghold built in the 12th century...
, the Temple Church of London
Temple Church
The Temple Church is a late-12th-century church in London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built for and by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. In modern times, two Inns of Court both use the church. It is famous for its effigy tombs and for being a round church...
or the Holy Sepulchre of Pisa
Santo Sepolcro (Pisa)
The Church of the Santo Sepolcro is a religious edifice in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy....
; all of them inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan....
. This alleged Templar origin and the aura of mystery that surrounds the church have contributed to esoteric interpretations. While the presence of Knights Templar in this zone of Navarre is not documented, the importance of another military order, the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem or Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
, that could have operated a hospital ('hostel') for pilgrims to Santiago
Way of St. James
The Way of St. James or St. James' Way is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried....
, is well known. Archaeological excavations have found many burials and the typical St. James' shells.