Sant Miquel, Romanesque church in Santa Coloma de Farners, Catalonia, Spain
Sant Miquel de Cladells is a Romanesque church with a single trapezoidal nave ten metres long and four wide, its longitudinal walls parallel while the apse and west end are slanted. The nave has a pointed barrel vault, and the semicircular apse a quarter-sphere vault. A square bell tower with a pyramidal roof and four round-arched windows adjoins the apse, reached by a stone spiral staircase. The south door has two stepped round arches with chamfered imposts.
Sant Miquel de Cladells is first documented in 950, when Bishop Gotmar of Girona consecrated Santa Coloma and mentioned the church of Sant Miquel Arcàngel in the valley, granting it to Giscafred, son of Ennec. By 1362 it appears as the parish church Sancti Michaele de Claudellis. During the Peninsular War the church was sacked and the main, Roser and Sant Llorenç altars destroyed; a new main altar and one dedicated to the Virgin of Sorrows existed by 1828.
The church gives its name to the Cladells population entity, which had 24 inhabitants in the 2006 census. The 950 consecration document of Santa Coloma by Bishop Gotmar mentions the church of Sant Miquel Arcàngel in the valley and grants it to Giscafred, son of Ennec. The former rectory, later used for years as an inn, now serves as a holiday camp house.
The church stands at the foot of the Cladells valley, with the cemetery enclosed by a stone wall that runs up to the apse and the later rectory at the building's base. The original entrance is on the south side, formed by two stepped semicircular arches with chamfered imposts. The square bell tower is reached by a stone spiral staircase.
The square bell tower is reached by a stone spiral staircase, and its four round-arched windows sit beneath a pyramidal roof. A semicircular structure is attached to the tower, and the apse cornice carries nine groups of two or three hemispheres divided by an incised cross.
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