Sant Miquel de Montblanc, Medieval church in Montblanc, Spain.
Sant Miquel de Montblanc is a church with a single nave, a flat headwall and five pointed diaphragm arches that divide the interior into six bays and support a wooden gable roof. The nave measures 13 m wide, 31.5 m long and 11 m high. The west front is a plain ashlar wall with a round-arched doorway of three rectangular archivolts on a pier and two columns with smooth capitals.
The first documented mention of Sant Miquel dates from 1288, when the town council met in the church. The present nave, apart from the chapels, was built in the mid-13th century, and the 14th-century painted wooden ceiling survives. Catalan Courts were held there in 1307, 1333 and 1370.
The 14th-century wooden ceiling is polychrome, dominated by dark tones with black, red, yellow and green. Its motifs mix Romanesque tradition (siren, monsters, sawtooth) with Gothic elements (shields and animals). The first chapel on the left belonged to the carpenters' and blacksmiths' guild, founded in 1326, and its keystone shows the Agnus Dei with traces of red paint.
The church stands in the old town of Montblanc, in the Conca de Barberà. The main door opens in the Romanesque west front, where the holes of an old wooden porch are still visible; look for them above the doorway. The sagrera around the church held the town cemetery until 1845.
Five private chapels were added between the 14th and 15th centuries, replacing the original earthen walls with stone masonry. These additions show how wealthy families invested in personal worship spaces and burial sites within the church.
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