The Iglesia de Santa María la Mayor in Abajas, province of Burgos, Spain, is a Romanesque temple. The site on which the church sits rises above the town and offers a good opportunity to view La Bureba. The church is structured in two naves.
Built primarily of sandstone, its construction dates back to the mid-12th century, with the main phase and apse completed in 1150, and the portada built around 1175. The exterior apse is raised on a small podium and shows an articulation of three panels, produced by two slender columns that link directly with the cornice. The windows are semi-circular arches and are not all visible from the outside due to the adjoining of the northern nave to one of the sections.
In the interior, the apse is covered by a furnace vault, while a slightly pointed barrel vault covers the presbytery and the main nave. The northern lateral nave was added later, towards the year 1600, and has three sections covered with stellar rib vaults, the central one being identical to that of the sacristy. The church's southern side has a portada and an adjacent quadrangular bell tower. All the complex is built of sandstone.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nik Frost
Discuss this with the author and others
No comments yet. Be the first to start the conversation.