Tour of Catalunya 2 - Vall de Boí

From Lleida we headed north into the Catalan Pyrenees. After a day of visiting grand monasteries and cathedrals, we were visiting small Romanesque churches built in tiny hamlets in the isolated Vall de Boí. As late as the middle of the 20th century motor traffic was limited, until a tunnel opened up access to what had been a dead-end valley. Yet over a period of 50-75 years, in the late 11th and early 12th century, many towns in this valley built Romanesque churches. More remarkably, they filled many of them with extraordinary art. Many of the Romanesque frescoes and wooden sculptures in Barcelona's MNAC (see the post of July 12) came from these churches.

Our first stop was Santa Eulàlia in Erill la Vall, a small, single nave church of rough stone, with a tall bell tower and a porch over the entrance on the north side.
Inside, is a simple, single nave with a pitched wooden roof, without decoration - except for the large wooden sculptural group, a Descent from the Cross, spanning its width over the altar. A copy shows how it looks in the church; originals are in MNAC (pictures in the blog) and the Episcopal Museum in Vic.
Next we drove across the valley to the town of Boí. From there we could look back to see Erill la Vall and Santa Eulàlia nestled against the mountain.
Boí's church is Sant Joan.
Sant Joan's nave has three aisles, whose stone was plastered and covered with frescoes - again the originals are in MNAC.
The bell tower is open to climb, and there is a fine view of the valley from the top.
La Nativitat in Durro was built a few years later than the others. Of the churches we saw, it has the longest, tallest nave with the most finished stone work and is the only one whose nave was covered with a stone barrel vault rather than wood. But it also is the one most altered over the years.
At the end of a side road of the Vall de Boí is Sant Climent de Taüll, consecrated on December 10, 1123.
This is surely the most famous of the Vall de Boí churches - in large part because of the extraordinary Pantocrator fresco that filled its apse - and is now the treasure of MNAC (photo in the earlier blog). A copy shows how it looked in the church.
The roof of the tall, three aisle nave is supported by stone columns.
In fact, the village of Taüll built two churches at the same time: in the center of the town is Santa Maria, which was consecrated on December 9, 1123, one day before Sant Climent.

All of these churches are in a span of valley of only 20 or so miles. Nine hundred years later, it is difficult to imagine how, over a period of 50 to 75 years, these small towns managed the extraordinary effort and skill needed to build these churches and fill them with art. Yet here they are.