The Church at Barbadelo

Barbadelo is on the edge of a hill with a panoramic view of the valley that leads down into Sarria. The church is off to the left of the Camino partially obscured by the graves that, in typical Spanish fashion, rise above ground in stacks. It is a curious romanesque church of the second half of the twelfth century which served a mixed sex abbey founded in the early 1000s as a subsidiary of the famous monastery of Samos on the other side of Sarria.

The church has an unusually broad single nave with light entering from two pairs of rectangular windows in the thick granite walls. Unlike so many romanesque churches on the Camino it has a square east end instead of the more normal semi-circular apse. This suggests that it must have had an impressive altarpiece which, in the course of time, was replaced bby the current one: a rather indifferent Baroque structure with later statuary.

The real interest of the church is in the portals and the exterior ornament. The west door has paired half columns with storiated capitals which, reading left to right, show fantastic birds, Daniel between two lions, paired lions or panthers and the three wise men before Herod. In Gitlitz I read that there was a flagellation but I think this is a mistake- I can't identify that. On the tympanum supports there are pomegranates and the tympanum itself shows Christ with his arms outstretched above a vinescroll pattern with a central bird mask.

Granite does not give itself to fine detail in the carving and the charm of this sculpture is in its rustic stylisation. The Christ has exaggeratedly long arms and his eyes are mere bore holes.

In the north wall there is another doorway with conspicuous scallop shells in a frieze above the capitals of the supporting columns. The capitals show lions on the left and intertwined serpents supporting a chalice on the right.

If there is a theme here it is that of resurrection: the pomegranates, the vine, the story of Daniel and the vine scroll all suggest that the primary motive of devotion is the slavation afforded by the resurrected Christ. The pilgrimage story of the three wise men is, of course, appropriate to the Camino de Santiago since they followed a star and the Camino to Compostela (field of stars) is said to follow the via lactea, or Milky Way.

Above the doorways there is evidence that at one time there were wooden porches of considerable breadth extending into the precinct on both the north and west sides. This is worth further investigation. Were the porches designed to receive pilgrims? Was there a processional or liturgical use of the portico? We must imagine the church without its surrounding walls and tombs which are of a later date. Perhaps the two doors were used to keep the men separate from the women: I can't help thinking that a mixed community of male and female is a temptation to stray from the path!