The church of Santiago has undergone many building phases and today is a palimpsest of its many changes. The Romanesque body of the church was constructed in the first half of the twelfth century (1) and the elaborate facade was added in the second -- likely in the decade of the 1170s (2). Santiago was almost entirely destroyed in the Napoleonic wars, when the Spanish resistance intentionally set fire to the building to prevent the invading French troops from using the church -- and its tower -- as their strategic outpost (3). After the ravages of war, the best-preserved element of the church is its west façade, although much of the right side of the arcade on the frieze is the product of a modern restoration. 

​

The portal is dominated by a monumental frieze that depicts Christ in Majesty surrounded by the twelve apostles (an arrangement referred to as an apostolado). Here the apostles stand under a fantastical arcade of micro-architecture complete with carved capitals. Each figure would have been identified by his name engraved into the arch above him. The names can still be seen above several of the apostles on our left (for example, see Peter and James). Below the frieze, the elaborately decorated archivolts, capitals and columns, though less commanding in size, also engage the visitor. On the middle archivolt (in between two plain bands of voussoirs) sit 24 high-relief figures -- 2 lions on the far left and far right, and 22 human figures, each engaged in a quotidian activity.

 

On the whole, the west façade may remind us of the south façade of the Church of Santa María del Camino nearby, while the left portal capital evokes a similar capital on the west portal of the Monastery of San Zoilo that stands just across a bridge on the other side of Carrión de los Condes (4). Open the Gigapans and 3D models below to explore the frieze in detail, find the monk, the scribe, the dueling pair (and more) on the archivolt, or explore the mysterious imagery on the capitals.