Cloister of the Collegiate Church, Romanesque cloister of a collegiate church in Santillana del Mar, Spain
The Claustro de la Colegiata is a Romanesque cloister attached to the collegiate church of Santa Juliana in Santillana del Mar, in Cantabria, Spain. It consists of four galleries around an open courtyard, connected by arches resting on decorated columns, while the east gallery has no ornament and was rebuilt in the 16th century.
The cloister was built in the 12th and 13th centuries, after the main work on the collegiate church was completed, with the church itself dating back to the late 11th century. In 1889, the whole site was declared a national monument.
The capitals in the south and west galleries show biblical scenes alongside figures from medieval imagination, including griffins, centaurs, and a knight fighting a dragon. The north gallery has simpler plant motifs, which point to Cistercian influence.
The cloister is accessible through the collegiate church, located in the historic center of Santillana del Mar, which is easy to explore on foot. It is worth walking slowly through the galleries to look at the capitals up close, since many details are visible at eye level.
One capital in the west gallery bears an inscription naming Pedro Quintana and the year 1203, making it one of the few dated and signed works of Romanesque sculpture in Spain. The same gallery also displays sarcophagi and stone fragments from excavations, arranged along the walls.
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