Art and Travel Notebooks. For the Merindades de Burgos: Vallejo de Mena and the Romanesque church of San Lorenzo
San Lorenzo de Vallejo, a beautiful temple that, together with the neighboring church of Siones, raises many suspicions about its authorship. Veiled or openly, the Temple acquires an unusual relevance in this part of the Burgos Merindades, facing, for many years, detractors and defenders.
And it is not for less, because the area, either by chance, or by distorted historical nomenclatures - as it seems to have happened with the name of the neighboring town of Siones - or because it forms an important nucleus where numerous references are collected in form of legends and traditions related to the Holy Grail, it offers footing for it and much more.
Now, although the presence of the Order of the Temple is not alien, either, to the region, there is historical evidence of the occupation of this temple by the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.
And by the hand of this evidence, we face, likewise, the uncertainty that every religious space generally raises, in some way related to both military orders.
This uncertainty, in most cases, is raised because, once the Temple Order was tried and dissolved, many of its properties became part of the Hospital Order
In this sense, sometimes the investigation becomes insidious and confusing. Possibly, one of the most illustrative cases of the subject and that generates more controversy among researchers, is that of the Segovian church of Vera Cruz.
In relation to the church of San Lorenzo de Vallejo, as I said, there is, however, historical proof of his donation to the hospital knights by Mrs. Endrequina de Mena, placing its construction between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
In fact, inside the temple, you can see the graves of this and her husband, Don Fernando de Vivanco y Sarabia.
Located on the Camino de Santiago, its reception and attention to pilgrim functions seem to be confirmed. The best example, perhaps, of this Santiago current, can be found at the west gate, called, significantly, the door of San Juan, which shows a varied and rich iconography related to the subject, in addition to showing other elements, subliminally symbolic, characteristic of the broad and significant medieval bestiary.
They call attention, precisely at the door of the west or San Juan, the varied and rich expressiveness of the figures represented in it, being of special relevance - and here is a possible, although veiled allusion to the Temple - two characters that support their hands on a staff or stick in the form of Tau. Similarly, curiously, it is also located in one of the canecillos of the church of San Pedro de Tejada, located in the neighboring valley of Valdivielso and considered, in fact, another of the Romanesque wonders of the Merindades.
Within this unique iconography, surely generated by the same stonemaking guild, a certain series of symbols constitute a constant, also, with the temple of Santa Maria, located in the neighboring town of Siones. The most prominent of these symbols are: a possible allusion to the union or universality of Christianity, represented in a tree of life, whose branches show a remarkable amount of pineapples.
The repetitive figure of several intertwined snakes, which show the unequivocal symbol of infinity, when not, likewise, a possible allusion to Galena science, evoking the caduceus of Hermes - the Greek Asclepius or the Roman Asclepius - symbol of death and eternal life, and even, hurrying even more if possible, a possible allusion to the number eight, of special relevance in its esoteric connotations.
The shells, an unequivocal symbol of recognition of the pilgrim, as well as the ship that carries them, the latter also located in a capital of the entrance porch of another notable and enigmatic church of the Merindades, San Pantaleón de Losa, without forgetting, in addition , of that other capital that is located in the small town of La Cerca, next to the Merindense municipality of Medina de Pomar, which could indicate the Cantabrian current of the Camino, presenting the flow of pilgrims from the Basque and Cantabrian ports.
Another symbology, possibly related to Astrology and Alchemy -arts considered as hidden and forbidden, in which, supposedly and according to some authors, the Templars participated and located in numerous churches attributed to them- can be seen, intertwined or subject to a double interpretation, in figures such as the human archer and the centaur-archer, which, possibly, would refer to Sagittarius in its two meanings: as an astrological symbol and as a constellation.
NOTICE: Originally published in my blog THE SPAIN OF THE TEMPLARS. Both the text and the accompanying photographs are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry, where you can verify the authorship of juancar347, can be found at the following address: http://juancarlosmenendez.blogspot.com/2009/08/vallejo-de-mena-iglesia-de-san-lorenzo.html
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