Recently I came across an interesting virtual reconstruction which is a speculative reconstruction of the Romanesque presbytery of the original cathedral of Girona in Spain. This reconstruction was made by 3D Stoa (who have also done this excellent reconstruction of Old St. Peter's in Rome). They worked in collaboration with Gerardo Boto Varela, a professor of medieval art history at the University of Girona and Dr. Marc Sureda of the University of Girona and curator of the Museu Episcopal de Vic.
I call it a speculative reconstruction because it is based upon some of the Romanesque era foundations that have been discovered, as well as some of the remnants of the earlier cathedral the cathedral treasury still possesses. (Today, Girona's cathedral is a full fledged gothic structure). Much of the design though is, as I say, speculative, which is simply to say that they don't know precisely what might have been there, but they have used other Romanesque precedents to extrapolate what the Romanesque iteration of Girona cathedral may have looked like.
To be perfectly honest, I am less concerned with the specific matter of Girona cathedral than I am interested in using this as an opportunity to showcase the general liturgical ordering and design of a first millennium era altar and presbystery, so with that in mind, let's take a look.
The first thing I'd comment on here is that what's being presented is a typical basilica style sanctuary that terminates in a semi-circular apse. This of course was one of the elements inherited from the classical Roman basilica. The walls here are covered with all sorts of frescoes -- which of course would be a typical feature of Romanesque churches, especially important one's like a cathedral. An image of Christ enthroned in judgement is found on that apse, which, again, was a common Romanesque trope for apsidal art in particular.
Surrounding the presbytery is a low wall, or balustrade, which separates the nave from the sanctuary. This too was commonplace and is a feature can still be observed in many churches in Rome (for example, the basilica of San Clemente). In this case the historical remnant we from Girona's cathedral shows that it included of design elements that are more medieval in theme than Roman, specifically including zoomorphic imagery.
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| Portion of the Romanesque balustrade (or possibly part of the ambo). |
The altar itself is located near the semi-circular apse, but not entirely within it for behind it is the bishop's sedilia. Here too, this is a classic Roman basilica arrangement as these altars were invariably free-standing altars and as you'll also see, it is covered with the ciborium magnum. Thankfully, the digital creators of this image made certain to include some other historical elements historically associated with the ciborium, as for example the curtains that were suspended from it (which would be closed during certain portions of the sacred liturgy, helping to emphasize the sacrality of the sacred mysteries) and, as was sometimes the case, a hanging Eucharistic pyx in the form of a dove is also suspended from above. Here the Eucharist would be reserved.
Turning our attention to the space behind the ciborium we see the sedilia which in this case would be a bishop's throne given that it is a cathedral. Once again, this is very much inherited from the classical basilica model. Now here I'd like to offer the comment that in a full fledged Roman or Byzantine (i.e. Eastern Roman) model, surrounding the semicircular apse to either side of the sedilia would have been found the synthronon; here is where other clergy would sit near the bishop. In this instance, our digital creators and the medieval art historians have opted to instead create chancel seating before the altar, instead of around the sedilia in the form of a synthronon. Obviously this was a speculative decision, but it must be said that either ordering could be possible here -- and in these times, it could even be a case of "both/and" (as it is, for example, in the basilica of San Clemente in Rome).
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| The Bishop's Throne from the Romanesque cathedral |
Turning back the specific question of the particular arrangement of the Romanesque era cathedral of Giron, if you're wondering how much much digital reconstruction is this is hypothesized and how much of it is known for certain, the digital creators have provided a "colour scale corresponding to the degree of historical-archaeological evidence of the elements represented in virtual reconstructions." Below is an image showing this. (Here too is their legend, translated here into our English for our readers):
Yellow: Hypothesized elements based on archaeological remains
Grey: Elements reconstructed from historical parallels
Red: Objects or elements preserved (Cathedra, altar, stained glass, balustrade fragment)
Orange: Documented but not preserved objects or elements (Altar cross, altar frontal)
In short then, the red and orange elements are the most historically concrete while the yellow and grey are hypothesized based upon typical Romanesque era architectural/liturgical orderings. It is fair to say then that quite a bit of this is speculative where Girona's cathedral is itself concerned. However, as I also said at the beginning of this article, what really is of interest here, I think, is the general insights this can give to those who are curious about the ordering of a Romanesque era altar and sanctuary.
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