Church of Sant Vicenç

Interior of the church.

Saint Vicenç is Catalan-Lombard style church in Cardona, Catalonia, Spain.

It is located at the top of a fortified hill.

Starting from the 11th century, stone churches, some as a part of Benedictine monastic complexes, began to be built in the area. The earliest of these stone churches had wooden trusses supporting the roofs. The church of St. Vincent was begun about 1020 and consecrated in 1047. The building material is cut stone. The stonework is austere, but sophisticated in the uniform size of the cut blocks and the quality of the masonry.

In the interior, a barrel vault of stone covers the nave. Three transverse arches, which add support, are evenly spaced down the nave. Their arches continue down the piers as responds, complete with capitals at the springing of the arch. Rounded arches, supported by piers, open into the side aisles, which are covered with stone groin vaults. Above the nave arcade, small rounded lancet-shaped windows pierce the stone walls. The windows are evenly spaced over the arch openings. A dome resting on squinches is over the crossing in front of the altar. The dome has an oulus opening at the top and small rounded lancet windows in the lower part.

The portico of the church was once covered with murals. Fragments of these "painted vaults" were restored in 1960 and are now displayed at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Sources

• Stokstad, Marilyn (2004). Medieval Art (2nd ed.). Boulder: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3681-3. 
• Luttikhuizen and Verkerk, ed (2006). Snyder's Medieval Art (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780131929708. 

Coordinates: 41°54′52″N 1°41′10″E / 41.91444°N 1.68611°E / 41.91444; 1.68611